ADDRESS 



IN COMMEMORATION OF 



THE TWO-HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 



THE INCORPORATION OF LANCASTER, 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



By JOSEPH WILLARD. 



OTttf) an Styperrtiv. 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON & SON, 

22, School Street. 

1853. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 

JOHN WILSON AND SON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



F1 H 



RESOLUTIONS, ETC. 



At a meeting of the Committee appointed to make arrangements for the 
Celebration of the Two-hundredth Anniversary of the Incorporation of the 
Town of Lancaster, held Dec. 20, 1852, — 

Voted, To invite Joseph Willard, Esq., to deliver the Address upon the 
occasion of the Celebration. 

JOHN M. WASHBURN, Secretary. 



Lancaster, Dec. 21, 1852. 
Joseph Willard, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — I have the honor to transmit to you the annexed Vote, 
passed last evening with perfect unanimity. Permit me to express the hope 
that it will suit your convenience to comply with the wishes of the Commit- 
tee, and that you will authorize me so to state at their next meeting, which 
takes place on the 27th inst. The 15th day of June, 1853, is fixed upon for 
the Celebration. 

Respectfully your obedient servant, 

JOHN M. WASHBURN. 



Boston, Dec. 31, 1852. 

Gentlemen, — I have received your invitation "to deliver the Address 
upon the occasion of the Celebration of the Two-hundredth Anniversary of 
the Incorporation of the Town of Lancaster." Acccjit my thanks for this 
unexpected honor. 

I have delayed my answer, doubting whether I coidd adequately repre- 
sent the occasion. From the interest, however, that I feel in the history 



IV RESOLUTIONS, ETC. 

and prosperity of the old town of Lancaster, — sometime my residence, — 
I have been induced to put aside all question, and to accept your very kind 
invitation. 

I am, Gentlemen, 

Very respectfully yours, 

JOSEPH WILLARD. 

To the Committee op Arrangements for the 
Celebration of the Two-hundredth Anni- 
versary of the Incorporation of the Town 
of Lancaster. 



Lancaster, June 20, 1853. 

At a meeting of the Committee of Arrangements for the Celebration of the 
Two-hundredth Anniversary of the Incorporation of Lancaster, — 

Voted, That the thanks of the Committee be tendered to Joseph Willard, 
Esq., for his learned and eloquent Address, delivered on the 15th instant; 
and that a copy be requested for the press. 

JOHN M. WASHBURN, Secretary. 



While remarking upon the early settlers in Lancaster, and those traits in 
their character from which the elements of success in the present prosperous 
condition of the town have been derived, it would have been very gratifying 
to the writer of the Address to give sketches, somewhat in detail, of a num- 
ber of the inhabitants who have been particularly distinguished as citizens 
of wholesome influence in private and social life, and, in a wider sphere, 
in public office, both civil and military. The general train of reflection, in 
coming down to the settlement of the town, would have easily led to these 
delineations ; thus carrying out the full plan. But the limits of an address, 
and the very considerable additional time and labor required to collect the 
materials for the proposed sketches, — which, it is believed, would form an 
interesting and instructive portion of a history of Lancaster, — rendered it 
necessary to relinquish the design. 



The precise day for this Celebration, after correcting the calendar from 
old to new style, would have been May 28, 1853. But as the true day fell 
upon Saturday, and also in "Anniversary week," it was thought best to 
postpone the Celebration ; and Wednesday, June 15, was selected, for the 
reason stated on page 149. 

The brief space of a day, or rather of that portion of a day intervening 
between the beginning of the services at the church, — which were unex- 
pectedly delayed about an hour beyond the appointed time, — and the leaving 
of the different railroad trains several hours before sunset, rendered it neces- 



VI 



sary to omit portions of the Address, and also some of the matters contained 
in the Appendix, which are now all printed in full. 

The Publishing Committee may not have included in the Appendix all 
which properly belongs to it. They can only say, that they have used, in the 
exercise of their best judgment, the materials with which they have been 
furnished. On page 158, the meaning intended is, that the Rev. Dr. Hill is 
a native of Harvard ; and, though it may not be mistaken, yet the statement, 
according to its present grammatical reading, is incorrect. A portion of what 
is referred to on page 197, as having been said by a previous speaker, will 
not be found in his remarks as they now stand, and was omitted in the copy 
which he prepared for the printers. 



ADDRESS. 



ADDRESS. 



Having been called by your committee to take part in this 
celebration, it was not without some self-distrust, and until 
after some deliberation, that I accepted the invitation. There 
are times when an invitation from authority is of the nature 
of a command ; and, having in time past taken some interest 
in the well-being of this town, and ever rejoicing in its pros- 
perity, I venture to meet every hazard, and engage with 
you in this day's proceedings. 

Citizens of Lancaster, — descendants of the early planters 
now dwelling in these pleasant places, — and you, who, your 
lot being cast elsewhere, are now present, coming from hill- 
side and valley, from city and field, from the pursuits of 
private life or the cares of public station, — in the name of 
the past I bid you welcome. The past welcomes you as you 
come hither with a reverential feeling for your own birth- 
place, or the burial-fields of your ancestors, — those humble, 
but honest and enterprising, pioneers of civilization in this 
then distant plantation. 
l 



I CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

And very fitting it is to turn aside from daily cares and 
daily labor, and devote one day in a century to reflections on 
the past, to the gladsome enjoyment of the present, and to 
the indulgence of hopeful anticipations for the future. 

This is no idle, ceremonious observance. It is connected 
with a wide association of sentiment. It has regard to 
ancestral feeling. It is wholly conservative in its influence. 
The sentiment has its place in the bosom of every true-hearted 
man, however humble or however exalted, — in all untrav- 
elled hearts, many of which, I trust, are now throbbing in 
these seats. 

We admit the power of this great law of association, and 
joyfully submit to its control as it kindly draws us to ances- 
tral homes. It binds nations and people. The Jew could 
not sing the Lord's song in a strange land when he turned 
in thought to holy Jerusalem. The poor Indian longs again 
for his free, unhoused condition in the home of his fathers, 
rendered desolate in his eyes by the refinements of civilized 
life. The African sings his lament in the house of his 
dreary bondage. The native of refined Europe or America, 
separated by business or necessity from the haunts of his 
youth, looks back upon them with reverential regard, and 
approaches them again with trembling delight. 

But this law, at certain periods of life, loses its hold. 
Youth, with an ambition of enlarged condition, and impatient 
of restraint, bursts away from the quiet of our peaceful villages 
to seek wealth or distinction in crowded walks, where conflict 
is the severest, and toil the most straining ; and tugs and vies 
with others in the race, till he seems to have forgotten his 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 6 

birthplace with its simple pleasures and enjoyments. But 
not so. As the deep seminal religious principle, early 
implanted, will burst forth in declining years, however over- 
laid in time of vigorous health and active powers, — seemingly 
for ever dead and buried, — so the right-minded man, when 
the battle of life is on the wane, revives again, and turns 
with tender affection to the recollection of early scenes. 
Scenes, that had faded and vanished, again prove real. The 
voices of the past lead him with their fond memories, as the 
little child leads the loving parent ; and he comes, as you 
now come, with the tribute of his affection, to hang his 
votive offering in these temples of his early love. 

Again I welcome you to this chosen spot, at this auspi- 
cious season, when all nature has clothed this beautiful 
valley in richest attire, with all the charms of new life, amid 
genial scenes, and in a time of marvellous public and private 
prosperity. 

The time for your commemoration is aptly chosen in the 
year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fifty-three. For 
though somewhat more than two centimes have elapsed since 
the white man first traced the furrow and sowed the seed in 
these broad acres, and though less than two centuries have 
elapsed since the full privileges of a town were first be- 
stowed upon the early planters by the colonial authorities, the 
anniversary of their actual organization as a municipal body, 
with the general functions of a body corporate, is in accord- 
ance with the usual practice in these celebrations, and is in 
fact the only definite point of time from which to take our 
departure. 



4 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

Two hundred years ago ! when the veil had been partially 
lifted, and light was pouring in from every quarter ; when 
the thick darkness which had long brooded over the nations 
had not wholly disappeared, — nay, which still lingers in the 
high places of civilization ; when the eyes were turned to 
the brightness of morning out of their broken slumbers, but 
still so dazzled and confused that objects passed and repassed 
as in a clouded vision, with indistinctness of form and out- 
li nej — at this time, when intellectual nature was paying 
homage to its Maker, and fresh beauties were beginning to 
gladden the soul ; and, in sad contrast, the great principle of 
toleration, still so imperfectly comprehended in its entire 
meaning, was dreaded for its danger, or scouted for its folly, 
— at this time, the large narrative of your municipal history 
finds its beginning. 

And what, at that time, was the history of Europe ? For 
Asia, in its stereotyped condition, and Africa, that great 
historical phenomenon, still remained in the dead past, 
involving Egypt in darkness for ages after it had performed 
its distinguished part in transmitting art and learning from 
the remote East, through Greece, to the shores of Western 
Europe. Russia, which now runs her parallels of latitude 
through the frozen regions of the North, touching upon our 
own continent on the West, and knocking at the gates of 
ancient Byzantium on her march towards the British empire 
of the East, was then all but unknown among the powers of 
Europe ; her hero unborn, and her subjects, wherever raised 
above serfdom, possessing only the half-civilization derived 
from her oriental sympathies. Spain, though already past 



AT LANCASTER MASSACHUSETTS. 

her zenith, still grasping two continents in her dominion ; 
the Atlantic still vexed with her richly freighted galleons, 
but her decadency irrevocably assured by the eternal law of 
right ; while France, on the other hand, just beginning to 
recover from the weak and divided reign of the son of 
Henry the Fourth, and the insane counsels of the queen 
mother, already gave intimations of that development of 
strength, which, at the close of the Thirty Years' War, by 
the peace of Westphalia, was exhibited in enlarged boun- 
daries, and through a series of brilliant victories that made 
her the leading power in Europe. In England, not then 
a first-rate power in her external relations, the struggle 
had already commenced between prerogative and right ; a 
fearful conflict that drenched the kingdom in blood, but 
out of which was to issue the final establishment of limited 
power, a new conception of the rights of the subject, — 
liberty, law, order. 

Let me glance briefly at some of those circumstances in 
the ecclesiastical history of England which tended to the 
growth of civil and religious liberty among ourselves, with 
those other circumstances in the character, position, and 
policy of our ancestors, that led to the 'confirmation of this 
liberty ; and then touch upon some few of the more promi- 
nent points in the history of the Nashaway plantation. 

No event in the history of nations, any more than in indi- 
vidual life, is without its final consequences. No human 
foresight can discern the great results that may follow from 
circumstances apparently the most trivial. In the order of 
God's providence, significance is to be attributed to whatever 



b CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

occurs ; and empires have been shaken, dynasties overturned, 
and the destiny of mankind shaped out, by the whim or passion 
of individual men. Thus, in the sixteenth century, — a cen- 
tury important as any other in the history of Modern Europe, 
and having its influence upon the planting of these western 
shores, — the refusal of the Pope to sanction the marriage of 
Henry the Eighth to a lady of his court rendered that monarch 
defiant, and drove him at once and for all time to sunder 
the British empire from the spiritual despotism of the Holy 
See. Rejoicing in polemic theology, the very man who had 
entered the lists against Luther and his great doctrine of 
justification by faith, — the very man who had defended the 
seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, and gained the 
title of Defender of the Faith, — in a fit of transient passion 
wrenched the brightest jewel from the tiara of the Roman 
Pontiff. Thence followed, in regular sequence, various pro- 
visions tending to make permanent that separation, which was 
begun in a bad spirit and a distempered fancy. The Bible 
was enthroned in the place of the Supreme Pontiff, and all 
were allowed to read their duty and destiny in its holy 
pages in their own tongue. 

These are the two great facts of Henry's reign ; namely, 
the separation from Rome, with its subsidiary train of con- 
quences, and the establishment of the supremacy of the 
Bible ; steps that once taken could never be retraced ; 
and though the king remained, in almost every respect, a 
stout adherent of the old faith in matters of doctrine, and 
feared the natural result of his own actions in this mighty 
change, and though the nation was halting betwixt two 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. J 

opinions, the onward progress was at every moment mani- 
fest. The mighty deep was moved, and bore upon its 
bosom the goodly vessel, now dashed against by opposing 
waves, and staggering under their shock ; now trembling 
in the wind, a seeming sport to contending elements ; drift- 
ing at times from her course, exposed to shoals and rocks 
and quicksands, but still staunch and tight ; righting herself 
after every onset, obedient to her helm, and, against every 
obstacle, gallantly speeding onward and onward towards her 
destined haven. 

The persecutions in Mary's reign, which for a time seemed 
to be dealing deadly blows against the new opinions, in 
reality fixed them in the hearts of the people with concen- 
trated though secret strength, and set the seal upon Protestant- 
ism, as is fully proved by the immense demonstrations on the 
accession of Elizabeth. If individuals quailed before the 
hand of power, masses still cherished the right, which 
gained in intenseness through successive reigns until the 
seventeenth century, and then became firmly established as 
the great religious power of the state. Meanwhile there 
were earnest men, reformers, scattered here and there, dis- 
satisfied that no more had been done, and anxious for further 
progress within the very bosom of the church. They were 
men who, according to the old maxim, thought nothing 
accomplished while aught remained to be done ; thoughtful 
men, fearful that the reformation was stopped midway, and 
that by some unexpected lurch the whole establishment 
might return to the arms of that spiritual power from which 
it had so abruptly broken away. 



CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 



Many braved the terrors of persecution in the time of 
Mary, and remained in England. Others fled to the Con- 
tinent, and formed congregations in Germany and Switzer- 
land, and built up considerable churches, banded together 
by a common faith and a common sympathy. From their 
intercourse with the reformers at Frankfort and Geneva, 
they gradually imbibed principles and views touching matters 
of religious forms and discipline, that established many of 
them at once as tin great party of progress within the bosom 
of the church. With united forces their power would have 
been great in accomplishing their work ; but they became 
divided before they returned to England under the early 
auspices of Elizabeth. Each party followed its own idiosyn- 
cracy, — the cautions and the bold. The one listened only 
to the echoes of the past, and sought no further change, nay, 
dreaded it : the other, giving God thanks for thus much, 
stoutly claimed further change, the evolution of higher 
truth. The former, with feeble progressive power, finally 
became encrusted all over with a hard conservatism, and, 
sliding gradually and easily into conformity, filled the various 
departments of the ecclesiastical administration : the latter, 
less submissive, with eyes undazzled by the rays of royalty, 
sought other and further light, and, embracing the genuine 
principle of dissent held fast to the right of private judgment 
and interpretation. Their opposition, it is true, was for a 
time confined to forms and ceremonies, observances and dress. 
But opposition, once ventured, grew wider in its views, 
deeper in its designs, more searching in its operation, till 
form changed to substance ; and the encounter, at first too 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 9 

slight to excite aught but contempt, waxed stronger and 
stronger, till sceptre and mitre were prostrate in the dust. 

The fiery contest raged through the chief part of Eliza- 
beth's reign, both in England and Scotland ; and all the 
powers of the crown, and all the sharpness of penal enact- 
ments, were called into exercise to crush the growing party. 
Papist and Puritan, the two extremes of submission and 
dissent, suffered almost equally from the biting statutes of 
the virgin queen. 

Those were no cold, speculative men, who out of the bosom 
of the church wrought the great change. They were the 
sober, thinking men of the age, — England's thinkers ; quiet, 
but determined, with an enthusiasm growing out of the 
very character of their souls. The religious element was 
awakened ; and that no earthly power can subdue. It feeds 
upon persecution as a natural element ; and flame and fagot 
but warm it into activity and intenseness. So widely had it 
spread, that, early in the reign of James the First, there 
were fifteen hundred nonconforming clergy in England 
alone ; representing, on a moderate computation, a million 
of persons. 

I would not derogate from the many excellences of the 
Established Church, — its solemn worship, its numerous mar- 
tyrs, its host of learned, excellent, religious men, in all its 
ages ; but, allied as it was to the state, identified with it, 
it was not to be expected — certainly, in the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries it could not be expected — to do much 
for the liberty of the subject. To accomplish this required 
a different set of men, trained under other influences. And it 
2 



10 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

happened with these, as with others, that they knew not to 
what a great end they had been born ; and that matters, very 
slight in themselves, would lead by gradual steps to an 
enlarged discussion of the whole theory of church govern- 
ment, the authority of the state as connected with it, and the 
existence of an established order. They were working out a 
great problem, with all their blindness touching toleration, 
and with all their imperfections. Every sect conscientiously 
believed that uniformity of faith, that is, uniformity with their 
sect, should be established by severe enactments. With all 
their strict theology, their denial of innocent enjoyments, 
their sanctimonious appearance, and their harshness of judg- 
ment, they became, unconsciously perhaps, the leaders in 
the greatest enterprise of modern history. It was their 
controversy that saved England from the dead calm of a 
spiritual despotism ; preserved at the time whatever there 
was of liberal tendency in matters of state ; and finally 
achieved the great victory of establishing constitutional 
liberty on a firm basis. 

All honor, then, be awarded to the Puritan party of the 
sixteenth century, whether in or out of the Church of 
England ; a blessed instrument, under Divine Providence, 
of so great salvation ! 

The events of the first quarter of the seventeenth century 
in our mother-country are too familiar, — the story has too 
often been told by many writers, and on divers public cele- 
brations, to warrant any detail on this occasion. 

The way that had been preparing for a whole century 
through much suffering, and with only occasional gleams of 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 11 

light, was now opening wider and wider to a new generation 
disciplined by adversity ; a generation, with some defects and 
some inconsistencies of character, exhibiting that tenacity of 
principle and purpose which ensured final success. 

I have stated that the Puritans in the early part of the 
seventeenth century, while they went for reform, by no 
means extended their views so far as at a subsequent period, 
or foresaw the necessary development and result of their own 
measures. They had no original purpose of overthrowing 
the ecclesiastical polity, and introducing the present dissent- 
ing service ; nor did they ask or urge any thing of the kind in 
their famous petition in the first year of James. They dis- 
claimed what they styled " a popular parity in the church." 
They had in view the internal police, if I may so term it, 
rather than the reconstruction of the fabric. So large was 
the infusion of the element of this party in the national 
legislature, that the House of Commons is found publicly 
sympathizing with it ; and a petition to the king to that 
general effect was sustained by a large number of the mem- 
bers, though by less than a majority. Well had it been, had 
success attended the effort ; but the array of power was 
marshalled in another quarter, and of a reverse character. 
At the very time the Commons were in deliberation, the 
clergy had their Convocation, and adopted a new collection 
of canons, which still constitutes a principal part of the 
ecclesiastical law of England. In many particulars it treated 
about indifferent matters ; that is, indifferent to all but for- 
malists : but others were such as troubled the conscience of 
the honest-minded dissentient, forthwith driving away a large 



12 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

number, and finally separating the great body of the Puri- 
tans from the Establishment. Out of this class grew the 
Independents, the standard-bearers in the great army of 
freedom. 

The principal articles adopted by the Convocation, that 
touched the sincere convictions of the dissenting Puritans 
within the church, and to which all were obliged to sub- 
scribe before they could preach, were these, viz. That the 
King is the supreme head of the realm, as well in all spiritual 
and ecclesiastical as in temporal causes ; that the Book of 
Common Prayer contains nothing contrary to the word 
of God ; that they will use it, and none other ; that the 
Thirty-nine Articles are all and every of them agreeable to 
the word of God. All persons are declared to be excom- 
municated by the very fact of affirming, that the Church of 
England is not a true and apostolical church ; or that the 
Book of Common Prayer contains any thing repugnant to 
Scripture ; or that the Thirty -nine Articles are in any part 
superstitious or erroneous ; or that the rites and ceremonies 
of the church are such as good men may not with a good 
conscience approve ; or that the government by archbishops, 
bishops, &c, is opposed to the word of God; or that the 
form of consecrating bishops, &c, is, in any particular, 
unscriptural. So all were excommunicated who separated 
from the church, and joined in a new brotherhood, or 
asserted their right to do so, or affirmed that there were any 
other churches within the realm that were true and lawful 
churches, or that any had a right to make rules ecclesiasti- 
cal without the authority of the king. And, finally, all were 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 13 

visited with excommunication who denied the Convocation to 
be a representative of the true Church of England, or the 
validity of its decrees ; or affirmed that the members were 
conspiring against godly and religious professors of the 
gospel. 

It is a curious fact in the history of these canons, that 
they were never the law of the land. They were never 
confirmed by Parliament, and have no legal force as to the 
laity ; and yet, filled as they are with the spirit of blight and 
mildew, they had a withering, deadly power. Under them a 
great company of the upright and virtuous, the health and 
strength of the realm, almost such as no man may number, 
were harassed and persecuted beyond measure, and without 
stint or intermission. Their religious rights were trodden 
down ; the dictates of conscience were punished ; social 
position was destroyed; and scorn and hate were visited 
upon them with unbounded severity. 

Who, then, can wonder at the rapid growth of dissent, 
dating from this period, and its continued progress, gathering 
strength from every fresh indignity, until its final consumma- 
tion in assured victory over its oppressors ? Who can wonder 
that these men, thinking themselves not only " somehow 
straitened," as an American prelate has sneeringly said, but 
buffeted and trodden down as he should have said, should 
gather the energies belonging to the land of their birth, and 
rise in indignant opposition to their persecutors ? 

What was said of this indomitable class in Scotland at that 
period is equally true as of those of England. " With all 
their arrogance and intolerance, and the other offensive 



14 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

features of their creed and character," says a writer, inclined, 
against the prejudices of education and association, to be 
somewhat impartial, " these men were far from being without 
their high qualities, besides their piety and religious fervor. 
The meekest of them, not less than he that was of hotter 
temper, cherished an honorable pride and spirit of independ- 
ence even in worldly matters, which kept them erect to a 
remarkable degree in their general carriage, amid all the 
servility and baseness of the timer Arrogance, intolerance, 
and the other offensive features of their creed ! As to their 
creed, it was at this time the creed, in theory and profession 
at least, of the great Anglican Church ; and though Armin- 
ianism had already crept in to some extent, and was largely 
spreading, it could then hardly be said to be the prevailing 
belief of the adherents of the church. A lurking tendency 
toward Rome already existed, and became quite apparent a 
few years afterwards. In the same proportion Calvinistic 
doctrines and practice were on the decline, and the believers 
were held up to ridicule and reproach; so that parish 
ministers, not long after, were forbidden to preach upon their 
peculiar doctrines. 

As to arrogance and intolerance, although we may not 
boast for them an exemption, it ill becomes the Established 
Church to flout the Puritans. It gave more than measure 
for measure in return for what it received. It had not the 
nice Christian eye . that would lead it to detect its own 
enormities, and amend them ; but saw the mote in its 
Christian brother's eye, and commended itself, saying, " I 
am holier than thou." 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 15 

Thus we have seen, in the time of Henry the Eighth, at 
first only a modified form of Romanism, — a change in the 
head of the church from the Eternal City to England ; then 
halting steps and slow, — persecutions by one portion of the 
Protestant denominations, almost equally of Catholics on the 
one hand, and of Dissenters on the other ; then the gradual 
growth of the principle of dissent permeating large masses 
of men, now no longer despised. The expression of con- 
tempt is no more heard, but fear and hate are in its stead. 

The men who colonized Massachusetts had remained within 
the bosom of the church, protesting against what they deemed 
its unscriptural ordinances, sometimes in a deprecatory, and 
sometimes in a defiant tone, preparing themselves for what- 
ever event in God's providence might await them. It was 
no longer a feeble aggregation of humble individuals that 
might be swept away, and no remembrance be had of them, 
but a recognized power in the church ; no longer a party by 
sufferance, but aggressive, contending for place and position, 
for the enjoyment of religious rights without fear of external 
and usurped dominion. 

And now first appears an instance of separation imme- 
diately connected with our own history. I leave out of 
view the instance of Robert Brown. His movement was 
individual and erratic. He contended mainly on his own 
account, fell back when his congregation was dispersed, 
became reconciled to Mother Church, and lived and died in 
her communion ; a man who neither in life nor conversation 
was a true type of the self-sacrificing pietist. The men of 
whom I am to speak were of sterner stuff. 



1G CENTENNIAL ADDKE*.- 

A few months before the death of Elizabeth, in the year 
L602, William Brewster, a gentleman of education and of 
public service at court, having no taste for the heartless 
pursuits of a courtier, — a man with whom life was earnest 
and real, — retiring from the round of fashion and luxury, 
united with some other kindred spirits, and gathered a little 
church, — the first church of the Pilgrims, in the North of 
England. Of this church the worthy and revered Richard 
Clifton was the minister ; to whom succeeded Robinson, 
so celebrated in our New England history, and ever so 
closely and honorably identified with it. I omit the church 
of the excellent and learned Smith, because he died early, and 
his congregation fell asunder in the Low Countries. This 
church under Clifton was the mother of our New England. 
Its story in the mother-country, its sufferings there, its dangers 
in reaching Holland, its various trials and triumphs in that 
country, and its final peaceful settlement on our own shores, 
are all familiar as household words from the interesting 
narrative left by Governor Bradford. But the place in 
England where this church was first gathered, and where 
it maintained a struggling existence for a few years, encom- 
passed on every side, with all of authority, all of social 
position and refinement, against it, while James threatened, 
in brutal phrase, to harry all Nonconformists out of the 
land, — that place, so interesting historically as the first 
nestling spot of the Pilgrims, has for generations been 
wholly lost from memory. It has been reserved to the 
present time to discover, identify, and consecrate the spot. 
This has recently been accomplished through the pains- 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 17 

taking diligence of a learned English antiquary ; * a gentle- 
man who, while devoted at home to the engrossing labors 
of an important office, from his affectionate regard for our 
New England worthies, has redeemed time enough to contri- 
bute a very considerable amount of exact information illus- 
trating our early annals. 

In a little village in Nottinghamshire lies the cradle of 
Massachusetts. Casting our eyes upon the map, we find in 
the northerly part of that county, on a branch of the Trent, 
the humble parish of Scrooby, an obscure agricultural vil- 
lage, now containing but two hundred and ninety-seven 
inhabitants, and in territorial extent less than one-tenth part 
of our own reduced Lancaster. Of greater importance at an 
earlier day, though never of mark among the localities of 
England, it will in future be remembered by us only as con- 
nected with our own history. " In the mean townlet of 
Scrooby," saith an early writer, f " I marked two things : the 
parish church, not long, but very well builded ; the second 
was a great manor-place standing within a moat, and longing 
to the Archbishop of York, builded in two courts, whereof 
the first is very ample." 

This bishop's manor was the residence of the worthy 
Brewster. Here he gathered from the vicinity a congrega- 
tion of believers, — Clifton, Robinson, the Bradfords, Jacksons, 
Rochesters, and others, who formed the first permanent Sep- 
aratist Church of the seventeenth century, which, under the 
guidance of Heaven, became the first Church of Christ in 

* Rev. Joseph Hunter, of London, a member of the Record Commission, 
t Quoted by Mr. Hunter : Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 
3 



l' s CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

New England. Thus was finished the training that had been 
in progress for two centuries from the primal type to the full 
representation of a peculiar people on these shores. 

Chalmers calls them "a few fanatics, who, tired of the 
European world, because it denied to them that toleration 
which they showed little inclination to allow to others, sailed 
for Virginia, but were driven by a storm on the coast of 
New England." But Chalmers was a Scotchman and a most 
ardent loyalist. The sentiment is not strange from that 
quarter, while the charge of fanaticism is the easy calumny 
applied to reformers in every age, — "Wickliffe, Luther, Clark- 
son, Wilberforce, and others even down to the present day. 

But, while we smile at this acrimonious spirit, it may well 
be admitted that these men were not in a position to establish 
a great state. It may be questioned whether they could 
have sustained a colony from natural increase of population, 
or from any emigrations, considerable either in numbers or 
resources. Probably they would have fallen before a hostile 
demonstration of either of the larger Indian tribes, — the 
Pequots or the Narragansets. There were among them many 
excellent men, whose names and worth every true son of 
New England cherishes in his very heart. Their principles 
and aspirations all tended directly to freedom : still they were 
not the men destined to build up a Commonwealth. Their 
assured protection came from the colony planted on their 
northern border, with Connecticut and New Haven in the 
opposite quarter. 

The time arrives, and the men are now advancing, for whom 
under the good Providence of God, in the beautiful words of 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 19 

the prophet, " the wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." 

And thus, while the little band of Pilgrims, first at Scrooby, 
then in Holland, and then on our southern border, were 
working out the destiny to which they were appointed, — 
feeble, because separated from the large class of Noncon- 
formists, — this greater body of the Puritans, remaining in 
the Church of England, was gaining in strength, in intellec- 
tual accomplishments, and in unity of purpose. They became 
recipients of all the advantages arising from the increasing- 
culture and civilization of the age. Herein they gained 
beyond measure. Their faculties were sharpened, their ener- 
gies were increased, by the discussions and controversies they 
maintained, and by the persecution they endured, when re- 
quired to conform, or be harried out of the land. God was 
now " sifting a whole nation, that he might send choice grain 
over into the wilderness." Ecclesiastical tyranny had become 
inveterate. The harrying was in full play. Then were gath- 
ered together men of education, wealth, and social distinction, 
— clergymen, lawyers, country gentlemen, men of deep reli- 
gious sentiment, and yet wise in their generation, — who took 
deliberate and sober counsel. They found, that by a potent 
alchemy they could transmute a trading company within the 
realm into a great institution of civil government beyond 
the realm. 

In this great measure, — this master-stroke, — first publicly 
suggested by Governor Craddock, we recognize far-sighted 
wisdom, such as no other colonists ever manifested ,' sugges- 
tive wisdom, comprehensive in all its parts. These men 



20 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

were willing to leave, three thousand miles behind them, all 
that constitutes the idea of home, and plant themselves in a 
distant wilderness, provided they had the powers of govern- 
ment in their own hands ; but not willing to become exiles 
from the place of their affections, if they were to be dependent 
upon a mere board of trade in London. 

Can they be justly blamed ? They have been blamed, as 
if they had done this great work in a corner, and had per- 
petrated a fraud upon the king. The vote to transfer the 
patent, so that it might be legally done, seems to have been un- 
animous. Whether legal advice was actually taken is uncer- 
tain. The fact does not appear of record. But it is certain 
that the king took no offence at the transfer ; and, more than 
two years afterwards, he was at especial pains to assure the 
inhabitants that their privileges would be protected. 

The reasonable explanation of the conduct of the king in 
permitting this transfer, which of course must have soon be- 
come publicly known, is given by a recent historian, namely, 
that " the king's policy, at the present time, was to persuade 
the leaders of the Puritans, that, if they would peaceably aban- 
don the contest for their principles in England, they were 
at liberty to embody and enjoy them in whatever institu- 
tions they might think fit to establish in America." 

Previous history may be searched in vain for an enterprise 
essayed with more vigor, prudence, and wisdom, by better 
men, or with more entire success ; not with remote success, 
nor with intermediate faltering, but by one grand effort, at a 
single adventure, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, God 
bless her ! was established on a firm basis. True there were 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 21 

sufferings during the first winter ; but they sink into insig- 
nificance in comparison with those at Jamestown and at 
Plymouth. 

The Massachusetts men were of two classes. They were 
widely separated by the distinctions in society that existed at 
home ; and for a time were separated here by the same con- 
siderations, besides those of education. The ministers, almost 
all of them, were men educated in the classical and scholastic 
learning of the times in the ancient halls of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. Many of them, as well as the leading laymen, were 
persons of considerable estates, and brought over families of 
the faithful of the uneducated class, who had been but little 
remembered in the distribution of temporal goods. The 
former rejoiced in the title of Master ; the wife was Madam : 
the latter were simply Goodman and Goodwife. These desig- 
nations prevailed to a great extent until the abrogation of the 
first charter. 

Many excellent men connected with the company never 
came over ; but, while active and thoughtful for the benefit of 
the colony, were largely concerned in that series of measures 
which established the power of the Independents in England. 
Of these, among many others of the laity, may be mentioned 
that worthy merchant, Matthew Craddock, the Governor of 
the Company in England ; Samuel Vassall, a member of the 
Long Parliament, and otherwise distinguished in public 
station, and one of the earliest on that honored roll, " who 
refused to submit to the payment of tonnage and poundage j " 
Thomas Adams, vigilant in the concerns of the company, 
one of the Court of Assistants, and a member of the House 



22 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

of Commons ; Sir William Brereton, of an ancient family in 
the county of Chester, a distinguished military officer, a mem- 
ber of the House of Commons, and one of the King's Judges ; 
Thomas Andrews the merchant, Sheriff, Lord Mayor of Lon- 
don, a»d also one of the King's Judges; John White the 
counsellor, the leading professional adviser of the Company 
in England, an active member of Parliament, lay member of 
the celebrated Westminster Assembly, and withal a grave, 
honest, and learned man. 

Of the clergy I will name only Nye and White. Philip 
Nye, a man of uncommon sagacity, an Oxford graduate, a 
member of the Westminster Assembly, one of those who 
negotiated the treaty with the Scots, which issued in the 
famous Solemn League and Covenant that united the two 
nations in one great religious compact, — that compact which 
resulted in overthrowing the monarchy. John White, of 
Dorchester, sometimes called " Father of the Massachusetts 
Colony," a man fervent in his religion, active in his zeal, en- 
lightened in his works, contributing to the necessities of the 
Pilgrims at Plymouth, providing for the moral and spiritual 
instruction of the fishermen on our coast, especially at Cape 
Ann ; for the plantation at Salem ; and for the union of the 
men of Dorset and Devon, whence sprang the Company of 
the Massachusetts Bay. He may be named also as the author 
of a tract well known to antiquaries, entitled the " Plant- 
er's Plea," intended to justify and promote the undertaking 
of the colonists. He was also active in promoting the adop- 
tion of the Solemn League and Covenant. No one was held 
in deeper respect ; no one was more deserving of it. 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 23 

These men, with their associates, are more especially de- 
serving of commemoration by us, because, as they belonged 
to the party at home that has been unpopular in all succeeding 
history, justice has never been rendered to their virtues. 

The character of a new settlement, the aggregate of indi- 
viduals, is equally important with that of the individual, as 
the great representation in the line of succession or descent. 
How many centuries, I would ask, elapsed ere the barbar- 
ism and piracy of the North of Europe gave way before the 
influences of Christianity and the refinements of civilization ; 
and how many subsequent ages before that Christianity and 
that civilization resulted in the firm establishment of well- 
assured freedom even in the most favored lands ! What in- 
termediate struggles of right against might, and light against 
darkness ; what dreary periods of doubt, almost ending in 
despair,* what persecutions and tortures of the good and 
far-seeing, — of the men guilty of being wiser than their 
times, and in advance of their age, — branded as inno- 
vators on the venerable rescripts of the past, and the 
time-honored institutions of the land ! — what condemna- 
tion because they represented no great majority of a popular 
party, but only the thoughtful speculations of a despised few ! 
All this must be undergone, experience long and bitter, 
before a well-ordered state rises from the various elements 
that contribute to its formation. So in the individual : his 
barbarism and vice descend by easy and natural transmission 
to succeeding generations, infecting whole masses of men, — 
developed now in this, and now in that offensive trait ; and 
finally and necessarily triumphant, unless controlled and sub- 



.14 CENTENNTAL ADDRESS 

clued by new elements of a reformatory character, gradually 
working their way to success. 

When, therefore, we take into view the easy, downward 
tendency of the individual and of the many, and the slow, 
painful, hesitating process of recovery under the severity of 
self-discipline and experience, it is a subject of devout grati- 
tude that our own colony was planted by God-fearing men, 
— men of whom we have no reason to be ashamed, — men 
who, with all their imperfections, have left their good 
impress sharply defined on all following generations ; clearly 
discerned in one long track of light down to the present 
time. 

Leaving, then, those of the Massachusetts Company who 
remained in England, proceed with me while I glance at some 
few of that large number who came over in the first great 
fleet in the spring of 1630; and of those who found their 
way hither at a later season of the same year, or subsequently 
within four years. All of that class may be embraced in 
the great army of founders. But first there is one entitled 
to notice, of whom history makes deserving mention. I 
mean Roger Conant, the connecting link between the settle- 
ment at Plymouth, the station at Cape Ann, the plantation 
at Salem, and the colony of Massachusetts. History de- 
scribes him as " a religious, sober, and prudent gentleman." 
He was a good man, filled with courage and resolution to 
abide fixed in his purpose, notwithstanding all opposition, 
and every attempt at persuasion he met with to the contrary. 
Among the laity he may well be classed in a like category 
with that of John White, of Dorchester, in a larger sphere 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 25 

among the clergy, in earnest effort to promote emigration to 
the Bay. Almost solitary in his position, he stood, with a 
brave and cheerful spirit, when others quailed and fainted ; 
and, stretching with the eye of faith across the bosom of 
the wide Atlantic, could discern, through the dimness of the 
future, the advance of that devoted company under Endecott 
that was to people the shores of Naumkeag. Two years did 
he, with his three associates, Woodbury, Balch, and Palfrey, 
in solitude and danger, await the advent of this band ; and, 
upon its arrival, was the happy means of allaying the jealou- 
sies and settling the differences between the ancient planters 
and the new comers, in relation to the jurisdiction over the 
soil and the enjoyment of individual rights. 

The great fleet of 1630 is now approaching these shores; 
not in ten or eleven days from the mother-country, accord- 
ing to our every-day experience, but after a wearisome and 
boisterous voyage of more than two months, baptized in 
storm and peril. Let us note a few of these men, with 
some of those that followed them, as they disembark in 
search of habitations in the wilderness of the Bay country 
that was all before them. 

Thomas Dudley, who had already seen military service in 
France in his carnal days, and, returning to this country, 
became a part of the church militant, now descends from 
shipboard, and appears upon the scene. We behold a man 
of severe exterior, clothed in the Puritan garb of that 
period, discouraging all levity and every approach to mirth- 
ful relaxation, as inconsistent with self-denying ordinances; 
abrupt in his address ; a terror to the worldling and the 

4 



26 CENTENNIAL UXDBE8S 

unsanetitied : believing all truth wrapt up in his own creed, 
with no toleration for a different faith, or want of faith, in 
others ; exiling himself from all the tender and social delights 
of a pleasant home ; sympathizing with those only of a spirit 
kindred to his own; careful in all money concerns, even 
to the charge of avarice ; but, with all this, of an ardent 
temperament, with a heart devoted to religion, as he under- 
stood and embraced it; of integrity incorrupt, of large 
good sense, and of resolute, energetic will. A fit person to 
join in the great enterprise, we find him, while on board the 
Arbella, before leaving the shores of England, entrusted 
with the second office in the infant Commonwealth, and 
afterwards raised to the chief civil and military command. 
He left a son and grandson more distinguished than himself. 
Let him he taken as a representative of Northamptonshire. 

Of a different bearing, of gentler temperament, and more 
gracious mien, approaches Isaac Johnson. He was of gene- 
rous nurture; the friend of Winthrop, Hampden, Dudlev; 
a gentleman of large landed estate: an affectionate friend 
to the colony, and its benefactor, — the husband of the 
lovely lady Arbella. They come in purity of spirit and 
with holy influences in the array oi' their kindred associates. 
but only as it should seem to seal their faith by their early 
death: — she. the virtuous, self-sacrificing, loving wife, re- 
nouncing all the distinguished privileges and the delicacies 
o( a noble home: he. in the words o( Winthrop, "a holy 
man and wise, and dying in sweet peace." He was a worthy 
representative of Rutlandshire. 

^ orkshire was amply represented by sir Richard Salton- 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 21 

stall, a gentleman of honorable descent, of kind and frank 
disposition, and justly entitled one of the fathers of the 
Massachusetts Colony. Not that he remained here long, 
for he returned to England in the following spring ; but he 
left his sons behind, who were honored in their own lives, 
and honored in the character of their descendants. In an 
age when toleration was considered as an evidence of lax 
principle, if not of absolute heresy, he exhibited in his life a 
beautiful illustration of Christian charity; and, some twenty 
years after his return, sadly complained to Wilson and 
Cotton of the instances of a persecuting spirit that had 
reached his ears. Though distant from the colony and 
engaged in other scenes, he was ever mindful and helpful of 
the colonists, defending their good name and their charter, 
before the king in council, against the resentment of 
Gardiner, Morton, and RatclifFe, — taking all opportunities 
of rendering them assistance, and still further deserving of 
gratitude for his thoughtful remembrance of the College. 

William Vassall, of London, one of the Assistants, a man 
equally catholic in spirit with Saltonstall, but more given to 
argument and controversy, well-educated, intelligent, and 
busy, remained in the colony only for a short period, and then 
left it for England. On his return to Boston, so fur from 
making that place his residence, he eschewed the Massachu- 
setts, and sat down at Scituate. He is called by Winthrop 
" a busy and factious spirit, — a man never at rest but when 
he was in the fire of contention." The title of Winslow's 
pamphlet, " New England's Salamander Discovered," had 
reference to Vassall. While in Scituate, he had a long con- 



28 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

troversy with President Chauncy in reference to the mode of 
baptism. It was conducted with mutual sharpness, but on 
Vassall's side with a good degree of coolness. He found 
more favor with "Wilson, Cotton, and others, ministers in the 
Bay, than with those in Plymouth. A second church was 
the result of this dispute, and the measure of his success. 
Though strongly suspected of inclining to Episcopacy, he 
seems to have been a pretty fair Congregationalist, at least 
while he remained in this country. The principles for which 
he contended were not characteristic of that period, but now 
would be universally admitted as a constituent of the unques- 
tioned liberty of the subject. The discussion was of imme- 
diate interest, and may have had some more permanent 
influence in the history of the colony. 

A more humble spirit dwelt in the breast of Increase 
Nowell, the Secretary of the Colony for awhile ; serving the 
planters with diligence as one of the Assistants for twenty- 
five years, and performing other public functions. Activity, 
energy, fidelity, were traits of his character. He left to his 
children the treasure of a good name ; which, being better 
than riches, as we have it on authority, may be considered an 
ample inheritance. He died poor in other possessions. 

William Pynchon, from Essex, another Assistant, possessed 
a determined nature, and a good share of learning. He 
founded Springfield a few years before Lancaster was first 
inhabited, and named it after his birthplace in Essex. For 
almost an entire generation, his was its leading and controll- 
ing mind. Like most laymen of that day, versed in scholastic 
theology, he rejoiced to see his name in print, no less than the 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 29 

brethren who engrossed the greater part of letters. Living 
remote from the other plantations, in a place of great seclu- 
sion, he seems to have been inclined, very presumptuously, 
of course, independent of the authorities in the Bay, to do 
his own thinking, and to have worked out a theory of the 
atonement, viz. that the sufferings of the Saviour were merely 
" trials of his obedience," wholly adverse to the prevailing 
doctrine. This brought him under public cognizance. The 
Great and General Court interfered. The church was in 
peril. The court solemnly pronounced its dislike and det- 
estation of his book as erroneous and dangerous, false and 
heretical ; required him to appear and exculpate himself, or 
suffer the consequences ; and directed that the obnoxious 
treatise be burnt by the executioner in Boston Market-place 
" after lecture." By the same power of eminent domain in 
matters of faith, ten years after, the apostle Eliot's tract upon 
the Christian Commonwealth, which passed current during 
the Protectorate, was supposed to reflect upon kingly govern- 
ment, and orders were issued for its suppression. Pynchon, 
in his case, appeared, and made explanations and retractions ; 
but, before final judgment, taking counsel of discretion, and 
probably foreseeing that he would be visited with sharp 
condemnation, he wisely took advantage of the interval, and 
returned to England. 

Before his theological fall, he was held in high esteem for 
his virtues and services, as a main pillar in the Springfield 
Plantation ; vigilant and helpful in church and state ; but 
he had committed what was then the unpardonable sin, — 
and what even in our own day renders a man obnoxious to 



30 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

censure, and disturbs his social position, — by the main- 
tenance and expression of opinions, which, however honest, 
were adverse to the prevailing sentiment of the community, 
lloger Ludlow, the Assistant and Deputy-Governor, who 
came over with the west-country people, was a more ambitious 
man than Pynchon, of warmer temperament, and somewhat 
of the Miles Standish school. Though, it would seem, not 
bred to the law, he possessed a reputation for professional 
knowledge ; — precisely the kind of man, and precisely the 
knowledge needed in the infant colony, where so soon and 
for so long a time the science and skill of legal fence were 
to be called into exercise. He was evidently high-spirited, 
and would easily kindle into a passion. He threatened to 
leave the colony and return to England, should the people 
insist upon choosing the Assistants every year, and upon 
choosing the Governor by the whole Court, that is, by the 
whole body of freemen, instead of by the Assistants. History 
records other instances characteristic of the man. But he 
was honest-minded and useful while he remained here, though 
somewhat suspicious that he had not his full share of popular 
honors. When the sovereigns find that a man comes to this 
complexion, they have a very summary way with him : he 
must submit to the bowstring. And so it was with Ludlow. 
He was left out of the government, and, in consequence, 
departed from this jurisdiction for Connecticut. There, in a 
narrower field and with fewer rivals, he became a prominent 
man for a number of years, — active in the Pequot war, — 
active as one of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, 
and so active in stirring up his neighbors on his own account 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 31 

to commence hostilities against the Dutch, as to disturb his 
influence, and occasion him so much trouble that he left 
Connecticut, as nineteen years before he had left Massachu- 
setts, and sailed for Virginia. 

William Coddington, a native of Boston in Lincolnshire, 
worthily embalmed in Rhode Island history, Assistant and 
Treasurer of the Massachusetts Colony, was a man less 
fiery in his constitution than Ludlow, but still of a very 
determined spirit. Winthrop calls him " a godly man, and 
of good estate." From his great excellence of character, and 
ample means, he was enabled to exert a large and healthful 
influence in Boston, where he was a principal merchant ; and 
his talents and integrity insured the continuance of that in- 
fluence until the time of the Antinomian Avar ; when, happen- 
ing to be of the losing party, — the covenant-of-grace party, 
— his situation became unpleasant in the extreme. He re- 
moved to Rhode Island, where all theological covenants were 
equal, — equally indifferent, — and was there distinguished 
for his good service. For a long time he held the office of 
Governor. 

Simon Bradstreet, of Emanuel College, Cambridge, the son 
of a clergyman, a Lincolnshire man, " the Nestor of New 
England," was more fortunate in his convictions than Cod- 
dington, in that he joined the covenant-of-works party, which, 
after a short but severe controversy, triumphantly carried the 
day. 

Coming to the colony a young man, he successively passed 
through the offices of Assistant, Secretary, Deputy-Gover- 
nor, Governor, Commissioner of the United Colonies, and 



32 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

Agent to England. His colonial life embraced a period 
of sixty-seven years ; witnessing the first planting of Mas- 
sachusetts under the first charter, the government during 
its entire continuance, its abrogation, the usurpation of An- 
dros, the incoming of the second charter, and five years of 
its vigorous operation. Surviving all his original associates 
and a host in the next generation, he lived to see the healthy 
growth and the consolidated strength of the Province, and 
was at a sufficient elevation, — like Lord Bathurst in the 
beautiful apostrophe of Burke, — casting his eye back in 
contemplation of the past, and looking into the future to 
discern the possibility of a rising empire in the West, freed 
from provincial transatlantic bondage. 

Few men in the colony were more serviceable than Brad- 
street. He possessed a phlegmatic temperament, tending to 
long life, with great moderation of character, accompanied by 
undoubted firmness. Though perhaps not bred to the Bar, 
like Winthrop, Bellingham, and Humphrey, he had respect- 
able legal attainments, which were frequently called into 
exercise. A distinguished tribute was paid to his wisdom 
and sagacity, in his being selected as one of the Agents 
of Massachusetts in England after the Restoration. He was 
generally, if not always, of the moderate party, and was at 
its head in 1680, when the charter was in danger, and the 
country was hotly divided as to the best course to be pursued, 
— whether to submit implicitly to the king, or to die by the 
hands of others, rather than by their own. From this mod- 
eration it has sometimes been inferred that he was an ordinary 
man. The important offices he held show the contrary. No 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 33 

ordinary man would have been sent to the court of Charles 
at that most critical period in our colonial affairs, or would 
have been replaced in the executive chair when Andros was 
deposed. But the authority of Winthrop, who calls him " a 
very able man," is conclusive. 

Of less public distinction and of less learning than Brad- 
street and the others I have named, was William Colburn. 
He was a gentleman of unquestioned worth, and great local 
influence in town and church for more than thirty years. 
We find him in that company of twelve, including Johnson, 
Winthrop, Saltonstall, Dudley, and others, who met at Cam- 
bridge in August, 1629, and covenanted to embark for the 
Massachusetts Plantation, provided the whole government, 
together with the patent, be transferred, and be established 
there. We know the man by his associates, and by the reso- 
lute performance of a brave, self-denying determination. 

The excellent Edward Rossiter, a gentleman of good estate 
from the West of England, and one of the Assistants, should 
not be passed over in this brief notice. He was held in 
great esteem among his associates, and possessed actual good 
influence, with the prospect of extended usefulness. But 
he was not permitted to help on the work. He was arrested 
by death within a little more than two months after his arri- 
val ; being one of those who, according to Cotton Mather, 
took New England on their way to Heaven. 

This slight enumeration of distinguished laymen who came 
over in 1630, imperfect as it is, would be sadly deficient, 
without naming him who was the leading spirit, the good 
genius of the colony. Born to a competent estate, having his 



34 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

residence amidst the wholesome influences of the country ; 
bred to the Bar, as were his father and grandfather ; nursed 
in the bosom of the church ; not forced to labor by the impulse 
of necessity, the predicament of the generality of mankind ; 
but having nobler impulses coming right out from his gener- 
ous nature, urging him to labor for the good he might 
accomplish, — we find him in mature life attending the meet- 
ing at Cambridge, and subscribing his name to the Solemn 
Covenant there concluded. Next we find him, though but 
recently become a member of the Company, preferred before 
all others for Governor of the incipient Commonwealth, 
when it was determined to remove the charter and the govern- 
ment to New England. 

And here his history is the history of the colony until his 
death in 1649. He was in office for the greater part of the 
time ; but, whether in office or a private citizen, was of potent 
influence, of unceasing energy, and ready at all times to spend 
and toil as he might best promote the public good. Of strong 
good sense, he was the wise man ; of clear discernment, he 
was the sagacious man ; of singular moderation and self-con- 
trol, he was the careful man ; full of integrity and purity, he 
was the conscientious, religious man ; — like the best men at 
all periods, occasionally falling into unpopularity, but waiting 
with patience till time should prove him to be right, and his 
adversaries wrong ; and then, without compromise or sac- 
rifice, regaining his ascendency, and becoming more trusted, 
honored, and reverenced, than before ; — if ever erring, erring 
in the sincerity of his heart ; and, like all noble natures, 
prompt and ingenuous to acknowledge the error when con- 



AT LANCASTER,, MASSACHUSETTS. 35 

vinced of it. With a nice sense of the liberty of the subject, 
and still at times apprehensive lest the encroachment of the 
popular sentiment of the less educated portion of the commu- 
nity should weaken the strength and consistency of good 
government, he held on his way, through good report and 
evil report, according to his own views of truth and duty. 
Deferred to by all classes, both clerical and lay, amid the 
constant difficulties that surrounded him, and sometimes em- 
barrassed his position, he pursued a steadfast course, sustained 
by his own conscience, and looking to God and to posterity 
to do justice to his character. 

He has left us a History of New England that is truly 
invaluable. Without it we should know comparatively little 
of the first nineteen years of the colony, — the period of its 
weaknesses and trials, — of the motives of its leading men, or 
of the principles of its policy. With it we have our earliest 
landmarks well defined, and a record of events on which all 
subsequent historians have safely built. Upon those nine- 
teen years he left an impress such as no other man has left, 
and which has survived through all succeeding generations. 

We revere him as the great founder and wise conservator 
of the Commonwealth ; as the skilful pilot who guided the 
frail bark through the tempestuous waters of religious and 
political strife ; as the choicest of that chosen seed in the 
great sifting of the nation. 

God, in his providence, might have raised up some one 
equally competent to fill his great measure ; but I know no 
one among all the wise and learned men, his associates, who 
could have acquired for himself such an ascendency as he 



36 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

possessed ; no one before whom all others would have bowed 
with the same reverential regard, yielding their entire con- 
fidence. In the singular purity, the unbending integrity and 
independence, and other noble traits of his private and public 
life, we recognize in type the great qualities of John Jay, that 
patriot and Christian of our Revolution. All reverence, 
then, to the name and virtues of John Winthrop, an instru- 
ment fitly shaped for a great work well wrought out ! All 
reverence to John Winthrop, the civil father of our infant 
State, and the ancestor of successive generations held in 
honor and esteem to the present day ! We go back to no 
robber demigods for our corner-stone, but to a well-assured 
name in the culture and Christianity of Modern Europe. 

Of Aspinwall, Edward Johnson, of " Wonder-working Pro- 
vidence " memory, and others of the year 1630; — of those 
who came over a few years after, as Dennison the worthy 
Major-General ; — Deputy-Governor Humphrey, entitled " a 
gentleman of special parts, of learning and activity, and a 
godly man;" — Governor Richard Bellingham, the lawyer, 
quaintly called " a great justiciary, a notable hater of bribes, 
firm and fixed in any resolution he entertained, of larger 
comprehension than expression, like a vessel whose vent 
holdeth no good proportion with its capacity to contain, — a 
disadvantage to a public person;" — Sir Henry Vane, well 
known in the wider sphere of English history ; — Governor 
John Haynes, a "gentleman of great estate," with something 
of Roger Ludlow's ambition, and more than Winthrop's 
severity in discipline, but doing good service to the public ; 
— Roger Harlakenden, termed " a very godly man, and of 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 37 

srood use both in the Commonwealth and in the church," 
who " died in great peace, and left a sweet memorial behind 
him of his piety and virtue;" — of these and others the 
principal laymen, I would only say that they were good 
representatives of their class in England, and were men of 
whom any community might justly boast. 

It would carry me far beyond my purpose and your pa- 
tience to enlarge upon the members of the clerical profes- 
sion, who came over in 1630 and a few following years. 
Their name is legion. They were educated men, trained at 
Oxford and Cambridge, with all the lights of the age ; fitted, 
by crosses and a perplexed condition in their own land, to 
adventure upon an experiment of life in another climate, 
and exerting here, during the existence of the old charter, 
an influence, political as well as religious, such as has never 
been exercised by any other body of Protestants in any 
quarter of the globe since the Reformation. They were 
stern, Old Testament men, tracing a resemblance in their 
condition to that of the Jews ; believing it ordained that 
the heathen should be driven out before them ; brave men, 
contending for their own views of the right through all ob- 
loquy, the sneers of the profligate, and the persecutions of 
ecclesiastics ; self-denying men, denouncing amusements, and 
the lax principles of the times ; rather rejoicing in being 
called upon to endure hardship ; very humble before God, 
but still loving power, not perhaps for its own sake, but for 
the good they might accomplish ; unbending to those who 
thrust at them, and loved them not ; austere in life and con- 
versation, partly from their theology, and in part from their 



38 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

position as a sect everywhere spoken against ; with many 
failings, — failings in the gentle virtues and in the spirit of 
toleration, — but with more virtues of the sturdy and un- 
compromising kind, such as the infant condition of the colony 
required, when an influx of any opposite religionists, or of 
the cast-off adventurers from the Old World, might have 
reduced it to a perfect Alsatia. 

The time of our great exodus from the mother-country 
was opportune. Had it been earlier, when kingly preroga- 
tive was scarcely questioned, and priestly power rejoiced in 
its wide-spread domain, the ancestors of New England might 
have settled down into unquestioning, passive non-resistants, 
with as little of will as of ability to stay encroachments. 
The time was well chosen, when the nascent principle of 
liberty was permeating the whole kingdom ; when arbitrary 
measures in church and state were stoutly questioned ; when 
the vigorous, hardy elements of the English character, our 
inheritance, were mustering and concentrating for the final 
struggle. Hampden had already resisted unjust taxation ; 
and, in the bosom of the church, the sacred right of dis- 
sent was taking definite shape. On the eve of great events 
the plantation was projected. In leaving their country, the 
colonists escaped the intermediate stage of polity in the 
Presbyterian Church, and came at one bound upon the In- 
dependent or Congregational Platform. Meanwhile, the 
troubles that were casting their broad shadows over the 
future of England gave the planters an opportunity of 
forming their theory of religious and civil polity, and of con- 
solidating their institutions to a considerable extent. 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 39 

Coming from a country whose institutions of government 
had remained for ages, they had a framework for their 
model that required only modification in its details to 
adjust it to their new condition. Thus saved from all 
fanciful notions, from all transcendental policy, from all idea 
of a social compact of optimists, like sensible, every-day 
men they proceeded to build for themselves on old founda- 
tions with sound views, issuing from long-established prin- 
ciples, sloughing off all feudal incumbrances, and all combined 
spiritual domination. 

What was the future that, in visions by day, or dreams by 
night, was dimly discerned by the more ardent and enthu- 
siastic ? Did a great destiny spring up to their view, as they 
stood gazing upon the shifting lights passing rapidly before 
them, and then settling down in dreary night, — like the 
prospect beheld from our mountain-tops, when the storm sub- 
sides, and the breeze sweeps along the dense clouds, which, 
now in broken masses, in ever-varying forms of beauty, with 
edges of light, reveal the sunshine and the blue sky, and, 
while the eye is beholding other mountain-tops beyond, with 
pleasant valley, hill-side, and plain, infold themselves in one 
grand volume, and close the scene to human view ? No 
such picture presented itself to their earnest gaze, — no bril- 
liant vision in the distance ; but, still with conscious faith 
that the invisible is real, and with doubts and fears as to 
their future in this world, they longed only for a spot to which 
they could flee and be at rest. They looked back upon their 
own native land — the homes and graves of their fathers, 
— with yearning and affection : but they sighed not to return. 



40 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

Girt up in the power that God had given them, they were 
ready to dare, to endure, and, if need be, to die. They had 
the courage of men, and wore it as a familiar garment. The 
stern duties they had assumed left them no choice, even had 
they had the purpose to retrace their steps. Their manhood 
and faith would at once have taken the alarm, and prevented 
the design. 

And did it demand stout hearts ? It may be said that 
others have made equal sacrifices. Others have made sac- 
rifices ; have gone to distant, barbarous shores, and ventured 
through seas of danger to conquer a name, to gain celebrity 
by military exploit; and every day the most imminent 
hazards are run in the greedy quest of gold. 

Adventurers had already coursed along our shores, estab- 
lishing stations for the convenience of fisheries and trade. But 
" the wealth of Ormus or of Ind " was not the object with the 
men of 1630, and their successors. They consecrated their 
energies to no such purpose. Turning aside from the great 
and engrossing object of mankind, the pursuit of wealth, they 
embarked with all the materials required to build up a state, 
— with their beloved charter, better than all the household 
gods of old, and attended by a superintending Providence, 
ever shaping out their destinies. The elements they possessed 
for a social and political organization at once took form and 
order, as it were, by a self-adjusting power ; and when, soon 
after, a representative body was constituted out of and instead 
of the whole body of freemen, and at the next step this again 
was separated from the Board of Magistrates or Assistants, 
each possessing a negative upon the other, the system of 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 41 

republican government was fully secured. So "wisely were 
their measures taken, that we have only to record constant 
progress ; and, even when danger was threatening from within 
or from without, and there was apparent halting, their course 
was still onward. The condition of their social and political 
state, gradually gaining in strength and consistence, and de- 
veloping in symmetrical proportions, led, by natural and easy 
stages, to success in their various encounters, whether in 
diplomacy or in war, until the final establishment of an inde- 
pendent government. The great result was not accomplished 
under a century and a half; nor was it either foreseen or 
predicted : but the curious student in their history can now 
trace the causal relation with perfect distinctness. The 
character of the people, and the quality of their institutions, 
were touched to one great issue. 

A representative government was fairly derived from the 
government to which they had been accustomed at home ; 
so also the division of their Commonwealth into counties : 
but the division into towns had nothing like it in their own 
previous experience, or in any example in the Old World, 
where cities, boroughs, and towns were of somewhat diverse 
signification. Towns existed here, of course, from the outset, 
as a necessary organization ; but we may search in vain for 
any authoritative establishment in the first years of the 
colony. They were not made : they grew out of the political 
circumstances that demanded them. Like towns in England, 
they had the right of a church, with the sacraments ; but 
far greater and very different privileges were soon accorded 
to them. They became corporations as soon as they were 
6 



42 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

competent to manage their municipal affairs. They had towns- 
men, afterwards called Selectmen, to order " the planting and 
the prudential affairs ; " a Clerk of the Writs, nominated 
by the town, and confirmed by the County Court, and so 
called because he had power to issue " summons " and other 
process in legal proceedings, and afterwards called Town 
Clerk, with additional duties ; also Constables, a Treasurer, 
Assessors, and the whole array of town functionaries. In 
civil matters, they made provision for schools, for the support 
of their poor, the establishment of highways, the disposition 
of lands, the support of a military force ; and enjoyed the 
power of taxing themselves, and raising money to any extent 
they pleased, for the purposes of the town. Their importance 
was further secured by their corporate right of representation 
in the General Court, which brought them into close contact 
with legislative proceedings ; each man, as it were, esteeming 
himself almost a legislator, — a part of the governing power, 
as well as a subject ; and looking forward to the time when 
he should be called by the suffrages of his brethren to be 
one of the deputies. A larger liberty was allowed than now 
exists. Residence was not required for representation ; so 
that if a freeman were ambitious of legislative life, and his 
own town were blind to his merits, he might seek his consti- 
tuents elsewhere. Thus, Thomas Brattle, of Boston, father 
of the Rev. William Brattle, of Cambridge, represented 
Lancaster in 1671 and 1672, and Concord from 1677 to 
1681. This privilege continued during the old charter, 
and for one or two years under the Province charter. But 
sundry members of the House, chiefly inhabitants of Boston, 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 43 

representing towns in the country, being opposed to the 
Governor, Sir William Phips, voted against the address of 
the majority of the representatives, who desired that he might 
not be removed from office. To get rid of these factious 
gentlemen, a law was passed, requiring residence as a quali- 
fication for election. And thus a change, first instigated 
by private motives, has in the end become a part of our 
organic law. 

The liberty of discourse at town-meetings was very large. 
Listen to the record : " Every man, whether inhabitant or 
fToreiner, free or not free, shall have libertie to come to any 
publique court, council, or towne meeting, and either by 
speech or writeing to move any lawfull, seasonable, and 
materiall question, or to present any necessary motion, com- 
plaint, petition, bill, or information, whereof that meeting 
hath proper cognizance, so it be done in convenient time, 
due order, and respective manner." 

Thus much for the power of the towns in civil matters. 
Their power in parochial concerns was equally broad. No 
churches being recognized but those of the Congregational 
order, and parishes being originally co-extensive with towns, 
the towns were vested with entire authority to contract with 
their religious teachers, and raise money for their support. 
The practice of voluntary contribution, however, prevailed 
for some years. 

It is hardly possible to speak too highly of the importance 
of towns in the history of Massachusetts, or to magnify the 
results derived from their institution. They were indeed 
miniature republics, possessed of every element of order and 



44 



CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 



freedom. Besides their powers, which I have succinctly 
mentioned, the meetings themselves are not to be passed 
over without note of their influence. " Town-meeting day " 
is a phrase of great significance ; representing, in an humble 
degree, that which is true of the Commonwealth in the 
meetings of its General Court. From all quarters, — from 
the farm and the workshop, from hill and valley, the peo- 
ple gather together to choose their officers, vote moneys, 
and discuss grave questions affecting their social and political 
well-being. There all meet on common ground, — the man 
of wealth and education side by side with the humblest, 
whose hands are hardened by honest toil. Each stands up 
in his own manhood, and has an equal claim to be heard ; 
and the vote of each is no blind exercise of power, but the 
deliberate expression of one free to choose. Listen to the 
discussions ; the homely statement, the sagacious remark, and 
it may be the exhibition of an untaught native eloquence ; 
the outpourings of a generous nature on the one side, and 
the contracted spirit on the other, — all the proceedings 
conducted with the propriety and order of larger deliberative 
assemblies. All bow to the forms as well as the substance 
of law ; all develope their several capacities, marked by the 
same characteristics, and swayed by the same motives, as 
great parliamentary bodies. 

Here we see, month after month, year after year, generation 
after generation, that constant training of the individual 
which gives him a sense of personal consequence, instructs 
him in his rights, and renders him entirely apt in all matters 
pertaining to the general government of the State. As town- 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 45 

officers, as representatives in the Legislature, as jurors, and 
in other ways, large masses are thus brought into immediate 
contact with the practical working of the laws, and become 
marvellously well instructed in their rights and duties. In 
this field of deliberation and controversy is sown the seed 
that bears rich fruit in the life of the citizen. Here, when 
trouble comes from abroad, and tyranny is scented in the 
tainted breeze, is formed the vigorous and combined public 
sentiment that sways the community. Here are witnessed 
brave resolves, to be carried out with equal bravery in action, 
in steady resistance to aggression. Indeed, we may almost 
say that the Revolutionary War, so far at least as Massachu- 
setts was concerned, was carried on under the auspices of the 
people in town-meeting assembled. There the discussions 
were had; there great questions of natural right and civil 
liberty were debated ; there the supplies were voted, the men 
raised, the sacrifices made, and independence wrought out. 

But all this machinery would be of little avail, unless the 
men were found to work it ; and the men would not have 
been found to work it, had ignorance abounded. Its influ- 
' ence must be correlative to the intelligence of the masses. 
For this, early and tolerably ample provision was made. 
The cultivation of the few, and the ignorance of the many, 
had ever been the unhappy condition of human society. But 
all this was to be changed. The right of instruction, widely 
diffused, was now to flow in, reaching the humblest indivi- 
dual and the remotest hamlet. The leading men among the 
laity whom I have before named, with their associates in 
civil life, and more particularly the ministers of the Congre- 



46 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

gational churches, possessed about all the learning of the day. 
These very men, whom it has been the fashion with many to 
deride immeasurably as bigots in the church, and tyrants in 
the state, were those, and those only, who established the first 
system of free schools known to the world to be supported 
by the whole community; and they planted, side by side, 
our University, which, from that day to the present, has been 
the blessed instrument of incalculable good. Possessing the 
advantage of education, and exhibiting its precious fruits, — 
knowing the illiterate state of the humbler colonists, existing 
to such an extent that being able to read was matter of 
praise, and being able to write was somewhat of a distinction, 
— knowing, too, that in no way could they preserve what they 
had so laboriously established as a free Commonwealth, but 
by assiduous effort directed point-blank to the minds of the 
people, they entered upon the subject with an earnestness 
and perseverance that insured early and complete success. 
Nor was there any of that narrow jealousy which it has been 
reserved for a later day, and a time of boasted refinement, to 
manifest ; as if there were any inconsistency between the free 
school and the college. All felt and acknowledged their 
mutual and beneficial dependence ; that the college was to 
be nourished through the school, and the school to be pre- 
served and elevated through the higher standard of the 
college, — links in one great chain, connecting all art and all 
science, and binding all orders and conditions in one loving 
embrace. 

All praise to the men who were first instrumental in 
enlightening the public mind, and training up the great body 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 47 

of citizens, by a constant exercise of the intellectual faculties, 
to a clearer perception of their rights and obligations, and an 
increased ability to preserve them ! Let their works praise 
them ; and we of the present generation, who have received 
the choice inheritance, and live in the sunlight of this great 
blessing, will praise their practical sagacity, and their far- 
reaching vision. 

The good sense of these men, shown in the system of 
towns, and in the provision made for religion and education, 
is equally manifest in the character of their laws. The 
statute-book of a people is, to a large extent, the history of 
that people, and the key to their condition in the widest 
range. It shows the progress of social order, national indus- 
try, liberty, and civilization, or the contrary.* In this respect, 



* We very much need an edition of our statutes at large, from our earliest 
colonial existence, down to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States; 
something after the manner of the English " Statutes of the Realm," " The Acts of 
the Parliament of Scotland," " The Irish Statutes at Large," or the United States 
" Statutes at Large." It should embrace all the laws, from the very first, in chrono- 
logical order, — the temporary as well as the perpetual ; all that have become 
obsolete, or have expired, or have been repealed, as well as those in force. It is difficult 
now to trace the course of legislation throughout our colonial and provincial condition. 
The effort requires some bravery of spirit, — a determined resolution. It is not well 
that a Commonwealth like Massachusetts should be without the statutes of her realm, 
collected and printed to the letter. Besides, the archives of the Commonwealth 
contain many projets of laws, not finally becoming laws, but very interesting and 
instructive in the history of our people. These would come in very well as collateral 
illustrations. 

The printing of the two earliest volumes of the Colonial Records, so wisely recom- 
mended by his Excellency Governor Clifford at the last session of the Legislature, is 
now in progress, under the enlightened and careful supervision of Dr. Nathaniel B. 
Shurtleff, to whom the Governor, with very praiseworthy discrimination, has entrusted 
the undertaking. This is a step in the right direction. May the Legislature of 1854 
take the next step, and make provision for the great work of the Massachusetts 
Statutes at Large. 



48 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

our ancestors, in most matters of their early civil legislation, 
were as wise in their generation as the children of this world. 
They had no book of Blue Laws. Some offences were made 
capital, to which at this day no penalty would be affixed ; 
but otherwise their laws were generally appropriate to their 
circumstances, and very judicious. 

It is somewhat singular that the character of our early 
statute law has been wholly misunderstood until the present 
day. Even the inquiring and learned Hutchinson was 
ignorant of the body of laws actually adopted. The subject 
forms an interesting chapter in our history ; but I can only 
briefly touch upon it. In the infancy of the plantation, the 
leading men were somewhat opposed to a fixed code ; not 
from any arbitrary notion, if we take their own statement, 
but, as they say, from " want of sufficient experience of the 
nature and disposition of the people, considered with the 
condition of the country, and other circumstances ; " and 
because "it would transgress the limits of the charter," which 
forbade any laws to be made, "repugnant to the laws of 
England ; " and " that," says the historian, with charming 
simplicity, " we were assured we must do. But to raise up 
laws by practice and custom had been no transgression." 
They had some views of equity, in adapting judgments to 
particular cases, pro re natd. Of course, the people were 
not quite easy under this dispensation, and saw clearly 
enough, with all regard for the magistrates and elders, that 
there would be no safety for the civil state, unless laws were 
established on a proper basis ; so that discretion, the fore- 
runner of arbitrary power, might be wholly taken away. 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 49 

From 1635 to 1641, six long years, this subject was 
mooted through many sessions of the General Court. At 
one time, in 1636, worthy Mr. Cotton, who was one of those 
who were appointed to compile a body of fundamental laws, 
presented " a copy of Moses his judicials compiled in an 
exact method ; " which were taken into consideration till the 
next General Court. No evidence exists that they were ever 
acted upon : certain it is they were never adopted. This 
code, however, of " Moses his judicials," seems to be the 
same that was published in England in 1641, under the 
title of " An Abstract of the Laws of New England as they 
are now established." It contains many provisions of prac- 
tical import, well fortified with references to texts in the 
Old Testament. Some of the provisions were not particu- 
larly democratic. Thus the magistrates were to be selected 
out of the ranks of noblemen or gentlemen, the best that 
God shall send into the country, to be chosen for life, un- 
less removed for good cause. " More large and honorable 
accommodations " in land were to be given to men of eminent 
quality and descent, in regard to their greater disbursements 
to public charges. No landholder could convey his estate 
to any one but a freeman of the same town. Wages of 
labor were to be regulated. Some twenty crimes were made 
punishable with death, — among them, heresy ; wilful perjury ; 
profaning the Lord's day in a careless and scornful neglect 
or contempt thereof; reviling of the magistrates in highest 
rank ; rebellious children, continuing in riot or drunkenness 
after correction, or cursing or smiting their parents. 

There was one provision, copied from Deuteronomy, and 
7 



50 



CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 



relating to military exempts, that would have been of blessed 
comfort to some citizens in the subsequent Indian wars. It 
runs thus : " Men betrothed and not married, or newly mar- 
ried, or such as have newly built or planted, and not received 
the fruit of their labor, and such as are faint-hearted men, are 
not to be forced against their wills to go forth to wars." 

Well had it been, thought William Aspinwall, a friend of 
Cotton in the Antinomian war, had the Massachusetts " had 
the heart to have received " this code. He confesses that it 
is not without imperfections, but is " bold to say that it far 
surpasseth all municipal laws and statutes of any of the 
Gentile nations and corporations under the cope of heaven ; " 
reaching " to all persons, nations, and times, and is a perfect 
standard to admeasure all judicial actions and causes, whether 
civil or criminal, by sea or land ; " — and much more of this 
marvellous praise. Governor Hutchinson does not go so far 
as to assert that this abstract was adopted. He states that 
the legislators made it their plan in general, departing from 
it in many instances, and in some which were very material. 
But this was not the case, as would have been manifest to 
him, had he known the laws that were actually adopted. 
A system more honorable to the good sense of our ancestors 
was the chosen one. Winthrop says that the General Court 
in December, 1641, "established one hundred laws, which 
were called the ' Body of Liberties.' They had been com- 
posed by Mr. Nathaniel Ward, sometime pastor of the 
church of Ipswich. He had been a minister in England, 
and formerly a student and practiser in the course of the 
common law." This Nathaniel Ward, the well-known 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 51 

author of the " Simple Cobler of Agawam," has the high 
praise of having prepared, and, so far as appears, single- 
handed, the first code of laws known in Massachusetts ; 
relieving the people from the presence of all discretionary 
authority on the part of the governors, and forming an 
excellent foundation for the construction of the jurisprudence 
of the Commonwealth. Except some few particulars be- 
longing to the period, it shows throughout a clear apprehen- 
sion of the provisions of the common law, and the liberties of 
the subject as contained in Magna Charta. It marks the 
exact and well-read lawyer, not overlaid nor clouded by his 
subsequent clerical training (I speak it, of course, in no 
offensive sense), but retaining the freshness of his previous 
professional discipline. I repeat, then, that they of the 
Massachusetts were eminently wise men in adopting Ward's 
system. They must have easily remarked the vast difference 
between the two codes : that "Ward's was an ample rule for 
a civil, enlightened community; and Cotton's a singular 
theorem, like the apostle Eliot's " Christian Commonwealth," 
adapted to no existing people, Christian or Pagan. 

The true history of our early legislation has been involved 
in obscurity, because the code remained in manuscript for 
two centuries. Written copies were sent to the few towns 
then constituting the colony ; but the laws never appeared in 
print till some ten years since, — the result of an accidental 
discovery by an exact and critical scholar,* who has triumph- 
antly vindicated the " Body of Laws and Liberties " as our 
fundamental code. But, while it approves itself in almost 
* Hon. Francis C. Gray. Col. Mass. Hist. Soe. vol. xxviii. 



52 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

every particular to the student of jurisprudence, other laws 
were added from time to time, showing the peculiar temper 
and characteristics of the people of the Bay, as they were 
daily becoming more distinctive, — such as laws punishing 
non-attendance at church ; punishing the keeping of Christ- 
mas by forbearing to labor, by feasting, &c. ; laws against 
heresy, and against the Quakers, Jesuits, and Anabaptists. 

Chalmers takes no notice of Ward's code. Indeed,, where 
Hutchinson was in ignorance, Chalmers could have no know- 
ledge ; and so he runs into the general error, and charges 
that the laws were compiled chiefly from the Jewish sys- 
tem. He complains also that the common and statute laws 
of England were no more regarded here than in Germany or 
France. This complaint is neither wholly true nor wholly 
false. They did not adopt the whole, or any part, as a system 
by which they were bound as subjects of England ; but they 
did adopt whatever they deemed suited to their condition, 
consistent with right reason, and not in conflict with the 
word of God. And they silently rejected the English system, 
as such, — not from any idea of independency, as was falsely 
urged, even at that early period, by Dr. Child and his asso- 
ciates ; repeated by the Commissioners of Charles Stuart, by 
Randolph, Chalmers, and the Court party generally, — but 
that they might enjoy in peace what they had attained 
at the costly sacrifice of kindred and country. And this 
solemn purpose it was their good pleasure to manifest in 
every way in their power, at least up to the extremest verge 
of their chartered rights. Circumstances wrought favorably 
for them in this respect, at very important points of time ; 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 53 

first, in the troubles in England, ending in the execution of 
Charles, and preventing undue interference in colonial 
affairs j and, next, in the sympathy between the colonists and 
Cromwell, when they basked in the sunshine of favor more 
than royal, and gained immunities of trade, which, seconded 
by their own industry and sagacity, added largely and rapidly 
to their wealth and power. But, except during the Protec- 
torate, Massachusetts was the least favored of all the colonies, 
from the first planting till the final separation from the 
mother-country. 

I would not pass from this general subject, without taking- 
notice of one of the many ways in which the sensitive nature 
of Massachusetts guarded every avenue that might admit 
interference from the government at home ; one that was 
very bold and successful through a series of favoring events. 
She was exceedingly jealous of appeals from her decisions, 
either to the King in Council or to the Parliament. The 
haughtiest monarch could not have been more so. And 
justly was she jealous, so far as the safety of the colony was 
concerned, whatever interpretation was to be given to the 
charter. As early as 1640, when the colony was in the 
tenderest gristle, when Parliament was mighty, and the King 
was weak, they were advised by their friends in England to 
solicit favors of Parliament. Many, doubtless, might have 
been obtained. Did they seize the opportunity with avidity ? 
Not so ; but, with cautious, clear-sighted wisdom, after grave 
deliberation, even at the risk of appearing ungrateful, or 
of seeming to despise a rising power, they very decidedly de- 
clined. They saw plainly that this would be that "first step " 



54 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

that would " cost ; " a favor received, especially after solicita- 
tion, would uncomfortably bind the recipient. The bestow- 
ing power would be likely to claim a right to interfere with 
the direction and control of colonial affairs ; and a state of 
dependence would be the result. The sentiment of gratitude 
would be well enough between man and man ; but, between 
two communities, it would soon bring about the relation of 
master and servant, by a sure rule of political science. In 
their instructions to Winslow, they say, " If it should be ob- 
jected why we make not out our processes in the King's name, 
you shall answer, First, that we should thereby waive the 
power of our government granted to us ; for we claim not as 
by commission, but by a free donation of absolute government 
granted to us ; Second, for avoiding appeals," &c. They 
made the distinction, however, that they were subject to some 
laws of state proper to foreign plantations, and that was the 
utmost they would ever admit. Dr. Child and others, in 
their petition in 1646, made a brave threat, that, if those 
of their denomination were not taken into the congregation, 
" they should be necessitated to apply their humble desires to 
Parliament to provide able ministers for them." The elders, 
however, had advised that the charter gave full power to 
make all laws, and final determination in all cases in the 
administration of justice ; from which, of course, they deduced 
the opinion that no appeals could be taken. When, therefore, 
the petitioners threatened to appeal to England, Governor 
Winthrop told them, in very plain language, " he would ad- 
mit no appeal, nor was it allowed by their charter." They 
were dealt with in the most summary manner. Fortunately, 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 55 

at this time all power had passed from royalty ; and Parlia- 
ment, being in religious sympathy with the colonists, did 
not hesitate to discountenance Child, Gorton, and others, in 
their attempt to obtain redress. " We intend not," saith 
Parliament, " to encourage any appeal from your justice, but 
to leave you with all that freedom and latitude that may in 
any respect be claimed by you." Of course, they were now 
safe in being as stern and uncompromising as they pleased ; 
and unfortunate were those who fell under their sharp dis- 
pleasure. 

The time was more alarming after the Restoration, when all 
fellow-feeling was withdrawn, and the colonists were regarded 
as schismatics in church, and republicans in politics. They 
most earnestly urge Leverett, their agent in London, to take 
care that no appeal be permitted in civil and criminal cases ; 
" which," say they very forcibly, " would be such an intolle- 
rable and unsupportable burthen as this poore place (at this 
distance) are not able to undergoe ; but would render autho- 
rise and government vaine and ineffectual, and bring us into 
contempt with all sortes of people." Leverett himself, while 
in London, was charged with saying, that, "rather than 
admit of appeals, we would sell the country to the Spaniards." 
He denied the charge. The King's Committee, however, 
pardoned it, if made, and regarded the words, not so much 
Leverett's, " as the spirit of the country." He was pressed by 
one of the Committee to say whether Massachusetts would 
not cast off her allegiance and subjection if she " durst." 
" "We apprehend we are honest men," says Leverett, " and 
have declared in our application to his Majesty to the con- 



56 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

trary ; and therefore [he] could not have such thought of us, 
without the breach of charity." 

When the Commissioners came over, armed as they sup- 
posed with irresistible authority, and claimed a right to hear 
appeals, Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Connecticut yielded at 
once, and the Commissioners proceeded to entertain appeals. 
Those colonies submitted, if not gracefully, yet very quietly ; 
and the two former made great demonstration and promise 
of loyalty and obedience. Purposely did the Commissioners 
first deal with those three colonies, trusting that so good an 
example would not be lost, and that it would " abate the 
refractoriness " of Massachusetts. The story is well known of 
their efforts while in Boston to hear appeals ; and the procla- 
mation of the General Court, by sound of trumpet, declaring 
that body the supreme court of judicature, and that they 
would not permit appeals. They did not permit them. The 
Commissioners were still more incensed with the impertur- 
bable coolness of the General Court, in a case in which the 
Court itself was in fact the defendant, on charges brought 
against it by a complaining party, and invited the Commission- 
ers to be present. But this very peculiar proceeding, of a de- 
fendant sitting in his own cause, was what the lawyers would 
call " a case of novel impression," not laid down in the books ; 
and was not agreeable to the Commissioners. They declined 
the invitation with some indignation. " Major Hathorne," they 
said, " made a seditious speech at the head of his regiment, 
and Governor Endecott another at the Boston meeting-house, 
but were not questioned for it." Randolph, in 1676, takes up 
the refrain : " The government acknowledges no superior, nor 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 57 

admits of any appeal to his Majesty, whose arms are not set 
up in any of their courts, meetings, or public assemblies." 

In this matter of appeals, so important, so vital, Massachu- 
setts stood alone ; uttering but one voice, and acting with 
but one purpose, throughout the whole of her colonial his- 
tory; thus justifying, to some extent, the querulous remark 
of Chalmers, that it was " an overruling principle in the 
colonial policy of England that refractoriness always procured 
concession, which has at all times been attended with the 
most consequential effects." This refractory spirit the ene- 
mies of the plantation saw fit to detect very early in the day. 
Sunlight had scarcely penetrated the forests around Boston, 
then but three years old ; the planters were comparatively 
few in number, after the struggles with a hard winter and a 
new climate, when they were charged by Gardiner, Morton, 
and Ratcliffe, with intending to rebel, and cast off their 
allegiance. Of course, a very absurd charge ; but worthy of 
notice, because it shows how early the colonists wished, so 
far as practicable, to manage their own affairs. They were 
veiy ready to admit allegiance, when pressed to the question, 
but never ready to ask for assistance in any emergency. 
They protected themselves in every difficulty, and amid all 
the horrors of Indian warfare. When worried by mandates 
from home, requiring their submission, they threw themselves 
upon their chartered rights, or the necessities of their condi- 
tion; and if, after exhausting all other efforts, they could 
neither "avoid nor protract," it was not their practice to 
submit, but to rest quietly, wait upon Providence, and abide 
the issue of events. 
8 



58 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

It is no part of my purpose to detail the course of Massa- 
chusetts in her many instances of peaceful resistance, so 
characteristic and full of interest. It would be but repeating 
the salient points of her history, all along the line, for a 
century and a half. Much less is it my object to dwell upon 
the often-repeated charges that have been brought against 
her. It is a pretty wide subject, and the field of discussion 
is large. With a few exceptions, a complete defence of her 
policy might be established, taking her own point of view, 
and considering the peculiarities of her situation. It might 
be easily shown, and the true historian of Massachusetts, 
when summoned to the great work, will show, that her sharp 
spirit and stringent legislation both combined to consolidate 
her strength at an early day, and led her on through succes- 
sive stages, securing at each point what she had already 
acquired, until, disciplined by adversity and invigorated by 
prosperity, she was able to lead in the great and solemn 
appeal to the last remedy of a people standing for their 
rights. I would not, if I could, conceal her blemishes nor 
extenuate her faults. Over and above them all appear her 
brave spirit, her indomitable industry and perseverance, her 
lofty virtues, her good order, and her stable institutions. 

It will doubtless be expected, by some of my audience at 
least, that I should dwell at length upon the history of this 
place. The day would not be sufficient for the purpose ,' but 
it will never answer in the play to omit the principal charac- 
ter. What I propose to say cap be well enough compressed 
within my remaining space. 

The territory of Lancaster was probably never trodden by 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 59 

the white man much earlier than the year 1643, thirteen years 
after the first settlement of Massachusetts Bay. It may be 
that some bold adventurer from Watertown or Sudbury had 
previously ventured to trap the beaver or hunt the deer some- 
what beyond the boundaries of the present town of Stow ; but 
who would peril himself by passing the bristling Wataquodoc 
hills, that divide the waters of the Assabet from those 
of the Nashaway, so distant from any outside support, and 
with dense forests between ? Along these pleasant waters, 
through these fertile valleys, on these sunny hills, the Indian 
strayed unmolested, in all the wildness and liberty of his 
unconstrained condition, as did his ancestors for ages before 
him. In all times, this vicinity, with its numerous little 
lakes, its running streams, and its intervales of easy cultiva- 
tion, scattered all over with the stately elm and sturdy 
walnut, must have been a favorite residence of the Indian. 
Here he reverenced the Great Spirit for the beauties of 
creation, — here he could sow beside the still waters, draw 
his sustenance from their bosom, and from the wooded coun- 
try around. Here the rude chief bore easy sway over his 
tribe, disturbed only by the fear of the war-parties of the 
Narragansetts, or the more distant and more dreaded Maquas, 
the terror and scourge of the New-England Indians. 

At the time when this territory first opened upon the 
view of the white man, the good Sholan, or Shaumauw, 
exercised a peaceful rule, in this his little empire, over the 
tribe of the Nashaways. His principal residence was a few 
miles distant from this spot, on a gentle eminence, between 
the two lakes of the Washacum. 



60 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

Early in the seventeenth century, the various tribes, the 
Pequots in Connecticut, the Narragansetts chiefly in Rhode 
Island, the Pawkunnawkuts in Plymouth Colony and its 
vicinity, the Massachusetts in the Bay, and the Pawtuck- 
etts extending east to the Piscataqua, were populous and 
powerful. The Pequots retained their power, as a great and 
warlike people, until their swift and terrible destruction by 
the English, in 1637; and the Narragansetts until a like 
destruction, in 1675; while the Pawkunnawkuts, the Massa- 
chusetts, and the Pawtucketts, some eight years before the 
settlement of Plymouth, had been swept over by a dreadful 
pestilence, reducing their numbers from many thousands to 
a few hundreds. Thus, in the belief of the Pilgrims and 
Puritans, was a way laid open, by a special dispensation of 
Providence, for the introduction of the people of God, — 
another Canaan prepared for the reception of another peculiar 
people. 

The tribe of the Nashaways suffered, though not equally, 
with the others ; but neither history nor tradition enables 
the inquirer to determine their number or their power. 
The Massachusetts, that had been a numerous people, held 
dominion over this tribe, which Gookin mentions as being 
in the Nipmuck country, though it is generally supposed by 
antiquaries of the present day to have been outside of it. 
However this may be, it is certain that the Nashaways were 
never, within memory or according to tradition, subject to any 
of the neighboring tribes, but only to the Massachusetts, who, 
before 1612, could send some three thousand men into the 
field. It would be interesting to inquire into and develope 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 61 

the history of our tribe j to ascertain the period of its power 
and decadency; to give an account of its intercourse with 
the early settlers in the valley; and to perpetuate some 
anecdotes of the men and the time. But, with the exception 
of a few glimmering, fitful lights, all is as dark as its sad fate. 
We first hear of the Nashaways in 1643 as a peaceful 
people and friendly to the English, whose rapid increase in 
population, strength, and spread, must have filled them with 
astonishment, and whose deadly blow, that prostrated the 
Pequots, must have inspired them with terror. Finding that 
some petty chiefs, who had placed themselves under the 
jurisdiction of the English a few years before, were fully 
protected in their persons and lands against their enemies the 
Narragansetts, Cutshamequin, the head of the Massachusetts 
remnants, Nashacowam and Wassamagoin, Sachems, near 
Wachusett, with two other chiefs, came to Boston in the 
spring of 1644, and in like manner tendered themselves, 
and all the Indians between the river Merrimack and 
Taunton ; desiring to be received under the English protec- 
tion and government. So they were instructed in the same 
articles and in the ten commandments. The answers of the 
latter chiefs to these articles probably agreed in substance 
with the answers of the first who surrendered their sove- 
reignty. They desired " to speak reverently of the English- 
man's God ; " and, when enjoined not to swear falsely, 
innocently answered they " never knew what swearing an 
oath was." With equal innocence, when enjoined not to do 
any unnecessary work on the Lord's day within the gates 
of proper towns, they said " it was a small thing for them to 



62 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

rest on that day, for they had not much to do any day ; and 
therefore they will forbear on that day," — and so on through 
the chapter. Cutshamequin and his brother Sachems were 
" solemnly received," saith the historian, " and then presented 
the Court with twenty-six fathom more of wampum, and the 
Court gave each of them a coat of two yards of cloth, and 
their dinner, and to them and every of them a cup of sack 
at their departure : so they took their leave, and went away 
very joyful." This was considered a very grave and impor- 
tant proceeding, not only worthy to be recorded, but to be 
the chief occasion of a special session of the General Court. 

Unless misled by the orthography of the name, I suppose 
we have in this record the submission of the Nashaway tribe 
to the jurisdiction of the colonial government. The tribe 
did not belong to the old towns of " praying Indians," as 
they were called, but was one of the seven new praying 
towns in the Nipmuck country ; a territory not very exactly 
denned. They were too remote from the old towns to be 
visited very often by the good apostle Eliot, or to receive 
much benefit from his influence. But they were not, as I 
once supposed, left without witness. The good man visited 
them in 1648, and labored earnestly for their welfare. He 
writes encouragingly : " Shawanon, the great Sachym of Na- 
shawog, doth embrace the gospel, and pray unto God. I have 
been four times there this summer, and there be more people 
by far than be amongst us, and sundry of them do gladly 
hear the word of God ; but it is nearly forty miles off, and 
I can but seldom go to them. Whereat they are troubled, 
and desire I should come oftener, and stay longer when I 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 63 

come." He was there again on his mission of Christian love 
in 1649, when the kind Sachem rendered him a grateful 
service. There was some stir betwixt the Narragansetts and 
the Mohegans, and several murders had been committed ; so 
that Eliot's people were unwilling that he should risk his 
life by journeying to Quaboag, or Brookfield, as he had pur- 
posed ; — " which, when the Nashaway Sachem heard," says 
Eliot, " he commanded twenty armed men (after their man- 
ner) to be ready ; and himself with these twenty men, besides 
sundry of our neer Indians, went along with me to guard 
me." But, after all, his hold upon these people was very 
slight. He writes complainingly, in 1650, of the delay for 
want of means ; and says, " that whereas, at my first preach- 
ing at Nashawogg, sundry did embrace the word, and called 
upon God, and Pauwawing was wholly silenced among them 
all, yet now, partly being forty miles off, and principally by 
the slow progress of the work, Sathan hath so emboldened 
the Pauwawes, that this winter (as I hear to my grief) there 
has been Pauwawing again with some of them." We hear 
nothing further of the Nashaways, nor of the apostle's exer- 
tions in their behalf, for four years. The gentle Showanon 
died in 1654. The General Court, apprehensive of his suc- 
cessor, and describing the Nashaways as " a great people, who 
have submitted to this jurisdiction," sent Nowell and Eliot 
to direct their choice of a successor ; " their eyes being upon 
two or three which are of the blood, one whereof is a very 
debaust, drunken fellow, and no friend to the English; 
another of them is very hopeful to learn the things of Christ. 
If, therefore, these gentlemen may, by way of persuasion or 



04 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

counsel, not by way of compulsion, prevayle with them for 
the choyce of such an one as may be most fitt, it would be 
a good service to the country." 

I cannot state positively the success of these missionaries. 
No royal archives of the Nashaways remain to enable me to 
declare upon whom the crown fell ; but the one described as 
possessing no enviable reputation corresponds well with the 
character of Shoshanim, who was second from Sholan, and 
was at the head of the tribe in Philip's war. 

The earliest intimation we have of the coming degeneracy 
of this people is connected, in point of time, with their 
proximity to the whites. It may have been an accidental 
coincidence ; but, as the facts of history are so decisive in 
other instances, we may here reasonably infer the same rela- 
tion of cause and effect ; and that the white man, who, from 
his superior intelligence, should have been instrumental in 
recovering the savage from his barbarism, was guilty of his 
debasement and moral ruin. The tribe had at this time 
recovered, to what extent I know not, from the pestilence of 
1612. A new generation had grown to manhood. They 
were now more numerous and prosperous than at any subse- 
quent period. The General Court, as we have seen, speak 
of them as a " great people ; " and Eliot says, " There be 
more people by far than be amongst us." But they did 
not attempt to advantage themselves by their position. The 
early settlers, though in their power, were rewarded by no 
treachery, but constantly met with kind treatment and assid- 
uous service. I suppose the palmiest state of the tribe was 
about ten years after the incorporation of the town, A long 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 65 

interval of peace had so recruited their strength, that they 
ventured on a war against the Maquas, which lasted several 
years, and was not terminated until 1671. During this 
war, they united with other tribes, making a force of six or 
seven hundred men, and marched into the distant country of 
the Maquas, or Mohawks, on the river of that name. The 
incursion was disastrous. The invaders were compelled to 
retreat, after having lost in the principal fight some fifty of 
their chief men, and perhaps as many more in other attacks 
and by sickness. The Nashaway tribe, it may be supposed, 
suffered equally with their confederates ; so that Gookin, 
writing in 1674, speaks of them as having " been a great 
people in former times," and says that of late years they " have 
been consumed by the Maquas wars and other ways, and are 
not above fifteen or sixteen families." And here we have the 
last recorded mention of them before their final dispersion in 
Philip's war. Their ruler at this time was, as we have seen, 
of a different temper from Sholan, and was probably addicted 
to the prevailing vice of his people. Eliot was then in the 
decline of life, though still active in the ministry. During the 
summer of 1674, in connection with his faithful coadjutor 
Gookin, he visited several of the Indian towns in the southerly 
part of this county, also the one lying on the southerly bound- 
ary of the present city of "Worcester. While there, they wrote 
a letter to the Nashaway Sagamore, Shoshanim, and his people, 
and sent it by a Natick Indian, whom they had appointed to 
be a teacher among the graceless children of Washacum. It 
so happened that one of the tribe was present on the occasion, 
and made a speech to Eliot and Gookin with " much affection 
9 



G6 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

and gravity." He gave rather a sad account of the state of 
morals in his tribe. Some of the people were well disposed 
to receive the truth ; but there was much sin there, and in- 
temperance fearfully prevailed. He promised that, if his 
friends would choose him Constable, and give him encourage- 
ment, he would come to Gookin for the insignia of Ins office, 
" a black staff and power." This would give him authority 
to apprehend the disorderly, and bring them before Gookin 
for punishment. 

Here I leave this poor, wasted people, before writing the 
last sad chapter in their history, and proceed to glance briefly 
at the origin and early progress of the settlement in Lancaster. 
Like that of the eternal city, the foundation of our little muni- 
cipality was a work of great difficulty, and attended with long 
delays. But we have no poet to make graphic its struggles. 

It cannot be shown that there were any Indians residing 
within the present limits of Lancaster in 1643, except perhaps 
a few detached families, whose localities are proved by stone 
implements, arrow-heads, &c, found near the surface of the 
ground. Sholan's. subjects were principally seated around 
him, near his residence on the pleasant swell between the two 
"Washacums. They certainly had an eye for beauty of natural 
scenery, like the Indians everywhere. The residence of the 
Sachem commanded a view of the spreading waters, covering 
a space sufficient for a good-sized town, with mountain 
scenery to the west, terminating in the graceful outline of 
the Wachusett. He was in the vicinity of his supplies, in 
the town of many waters and abundant woods. He needed 
not the exclusive enjoyment of real estate, like a great pro- 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 67 

perty-holder. A free range for fishing and hunting, with 
the reservation of a little land for planting, would satisfy 
every want. He therefore rather coveted the neighborhood 
of the English, — thought perhaps they would be a protec- 
tion against the dreaded Maquas, — saw not the early destruc- 
tion of his race in the dimness of the future. Laden with 
peltry, he found his way to Watertown, probably before 
1643. He there met with Thomas King, with whom he 
traded. He told King of the choice intervales, so easy for 
planting ; the woods and waters, abounding in supplies ; — 
that the Great Spirit had been very bountiful to the place, 
and that the Nashaways would rejoice in the presence of that 
great people who had come from a distant world. King 
may have naturally hesitated in venturing so far into the 
wilderness ; and his good wife Mary may have clung to him 
very fondly, entreating him not to trust himself with the 
Indian " salvages," who would prove treacherous, however in 
appearance friendly, and leave her a widow, and their little 
son and daughter, just taught to lisp their parents' names, by 
which they were called, orphans. King was young, resolute, 
and confident. He put away the fears of Mary as idle, 
assuring her of his great trust in Sholan, and, above all, his 
faith in that divine Providence which had led him on thus far. 
He persuaded her that all would be well. A weary day's work 
is before him. He makes his preparations, in which Mary 
renders her gentle and affectionate assistance. He rises 
early, and, apparelling himself in the simple garb of his con- 
dition and age, embraces his little Thomas and Mary and his 
loving wife, mounts his horse, and, pursuing his course for 



68 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

some distance along the valley of Charles River, thence 
through infant Sudbury, fording or swimming the river, and 
piercing the unbroken forest as best he may, reaches the 
summit of the "Wataquodoc. There he stops, and gazes with 
delight upon the long extended valley, beautiful as that of 
Rasselas, permeated with streams ; with a landscape of gentle 
undulations, the Wachusett rising bravely in the distance as 
its western boundary. Slowly he descends, passes the south 
branch of the Nashaway at "the wading-place," and proceeds 
onward to the south-easterly slope of George Hill. " This is 
a goodly spot," he exclaims : " I can doubt no longer. The 
favored territory must be purchased ; and here, where I stand, 
will I erect a trading-house for commerce with Sholan's tribe." 
He returns to "Watertown, and casts about among his neigh- 
bors and others for adventurous spirits to join with him in 
the purchase. The same year that the confederation of the 
colonies was formed, that most important measure, the assu- 
rance of strength and confidence against all internal danger, 
— the same year that the Scotch League and Covenant was 
ratified, which led by necessity to the overthrow of the 
Stuarts, — witnessed the inception, the first germ, of this 
then distant plantation. 

King associated with himself John Prescott, of "Watertown ; 
Harmon Garrett, of Charlestown ; Thomas Skidmore, of Cam- 
bridge ; Stephen Day, of Cambridge, the earliest printer in 
any of the colonies ; a Mr. Symonds, but which of the several 
persons of that name I cannot ascertain j and sundry others, 
whose names have not been transmitted. Harrington classes 
these last under the very convenient designation of " &c." — 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 69 

an expression that may at least lay claim to as large an inter- 
pretation as the " &c." of Littleton, which Lord Coke, in his 
commentaries, affirms to be very pregnant with meaning. 
This little abbreviation shuts out the names of the other 
associates in utter night. The associates took a deed from 
Sholan of this part of his domain, ten miles in length and 
eight in breadth. Unfortunately this deed is not on record, 
and the original cannot be found.* 

They entered into an agreement to appear and begin the 
plantation at a certain time ; and, as an evidence of their 
determination, sent up three Watertown husbandmen, — 
Richard Linton, Lawrence Waters, his son-in-law, and John 
Ball,t to whom they assigned land, — to make preparation 
for " the general appearance of the Company." These three 
men, who, it would seem, came here two hundred and ten 
years ago, were the first inhabitants. Waters afterwards 
built a house on the pleasant slope in front of us, near the 
entrance of the centre road. King and Symonds built a 



* Rev. Mr. Harrington, in his Century Sermon, preached May 28, 1753, states 
that the purchase was made in 1645. This is a mistake. It was made, without 
question, in 1643. 

With regard to the area of the town, the full measure of eighty square miles seems 
to have been given by the survey, though the original grant and the survey differ in 
the length of the lines. 

f The town Covenant contains the signatures of the inhabitants up to 1660, but 
Ball's name is not there; neither is it in the record of grants. He was killed by the 
Indians at Lancaster in 1676. He was at that tinil of Lancaster. He probably left 
before the incorporation of the town. It would seem that he was entitled to land, but 
that it was not laid out. John his son, in 1682, conveys to Thomas Harris, of Boston, 
thirty acres of upland, twenty acres of intervale, &c. &c, " butting and bounding 
as these are, or hereafter shall be, recorded in the records for the town of Lancaster." 
Middlesex Registry, 16-100. This was probably a first grant, and, up to this time, 
not laid out. 



70 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

trading-house on the south-easterly side of George Hill, which 
was the earliest building in this valley. Neither King nor 
Symonds ever resided here, and the former very soon sold all 
his interest to the other associates. Sholan further evidenced 
his desire to be on good terms with the planters, in the spring 
of 1 644, and to give them assurance of safety, by submitting 
himself and his tribe to, the government of Massachusetts 
Bay. 

The first effort of the associates seems to have been to 
gather a church before any houses were erected ; and seven 
of them, who were not freemen, and of course not church- 
members, invited the Rev. Nathaniel Norcross, of Watertown, 
a graduate at Catherine Hall College, in the University of 
Cambridge, in 1636, to be their minister. Norcross, Robert 
Child the " Paduan Doctor," Stephen Day, John Fisher, and 
others, whose names cannot now be recovered, appear to have 
been the first who petitioned for the liberty of a plantation 
here, at the sessions of the General Court in May, 1644. 
They were advised first to go and build, and take members 
of other churches, and proceed in an orderly way, according 
to the usual wont in other towns. The business labored 
through the year 1644, notwithstanding their continued 
efforts ; and other difficulties intervened to prevent the 
" Company intended to plant Nashaway " from reaching the 
promised land. 

In June, 1645, more than two years after King's mission, 
Norcross, Prescott, Day, Garrett, and Skidmore, together with 
John Hill, — of which name there were clivers persons in the 
colony, — Isaac Walker, and John Cowdall of Boston, and 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 71 

Joseph Jenkes, either the ingenious blacksmith of Lynn, or 
his son of the same name, who now first appear upon the 
scene, — unless they are included in Harrington's " &c. " of 
1 643, — complain to the General Court of the want of a 
bridge over Sudbury River, and a way over the marshes, so 
that they cannot pass to the plantation without exposing 
themselves and their property to loss ; " as your petitioners,'' 
they say, " are able to make proof of by sad experience of 
what we suffered there within these few days. Many of us 
have been dependent on this work above these two years 
past. Much time and means have been spent in discovering 
the plantation, and providing for our settling there. Divers 
of us have covenanted to sit down together, and to improve 
ourselves there this summer, that we may live there the 
winter next ensuing, if God permit." This petition was 
favorably entertained, and an allowance was made towards 
the work, provided " it be done within a twelvemonth." 

The summer passed away ; and Sudbury bridge and cause- 
way were not made. On the first of October, in answer to 
their petition, the Court consented that Hill, before named, 
Sergeant John Davies, John Chandler, Isaac Walker, and 
Mathew Barnes, or any three of them, should have power 
to lay out lots for all the planters. They presented another 
petition, October 3d, referring to a petition of the day 
before, which is not now to be found, and designate Hill, 
Davis, Chandler, Walker, Skidmore, Barnes, — names already 
mentioned, — with the addition of James Cutler and Samuel 
Bitfield, as suitable persons. From this list the Court 
selected Hill, Davis, Chandler, Walker, and Barnes. Bit- 



iZ CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

field they first approved, but afterwards erased his name. 
But the year 1 645 ended as it began : nothing was accom- 
plished. Winthrop had no high estimate of the persons 
interested in this plantation at that time : " most of them were 
poor men," he states, " and some of them corrupt in judg- 
ment, and others profane, so that in two years they had not 
three houses built, and he whom they had called to be their 
minister left them for their delays." It is impossible to 
separate these men, and class them according to their moral 
affinities, as described by Winthrop. They were un- 
doubtedly, most of them, humble men, not rich in goods, 
not liable to the charge of " intolerable excess and bravery." 
Probably, however, no one of them had an " estate exceeding 
two hundred pounds," which would permit them by law to 
" wear gold or silver lace, or gold and silver buttons, or any 
bone lace above two shillings per yard, or to walk in great 
boots ; " or their wives to " wear silk hoods or scarfs." I 
trust, however, that not many of them were " profane ; " and 
as for being " corrupt in judgment," interpreted into the 
dialect of the present day, it would probably mean no more 
than this, — that they were not members of any church, 
not freemen, and not of the way of any congregation as then 
established. It should be remarked, however, that Prescott 
was the only one of the petitioners who became an inhabitant 
of Lancaster. It may be that Norcross left them for the 
reason stated, though the fact of his joining in the petition 
for Sudbury bridge and causeway, the want of which, after 
all, seems to have been the great obstacle, or one of the ob- 
stacles, and one that the petition shows they were all laboring 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 73 

harmoniously, in a common cause, to overcome, seems to dis- 
prove it. Harrington suggests that Norcross left either from 
aversion to the place, or by the instigation of such of the pro- 
prietors as were unwilling to come up themselves, and took 
with him the mutual obligation of the associates, — took it 
with him perhaps to England, whither he seems to have gone. 
It certainly is no marvel that many of these men should 
have become discouraged, and have been glad to plead the 
loss or disappearance of the written obligation as an excuse 
for its violation. But they were not right in retaining their 
interest in the plantation, while they refused to comply with 
the terms of the contract. One only of the associates, John 
Prescott, the stalwart blacksmith, was faithful among the 
faithless. He turned not back, but vigorously pursued the 
interests of the plantation till his exertions were crowned 
with success. How soon he became a permanent resident 
I cannot now state. I suppose that he passed the winter 
of 1 646—47 within a short distance of this spot. Linton and 
Waters were already here, and had tilled the soil, and were 
prepared to receive Prescott, who ventured up, though 
Sudbury bridge and causeway were not. Perhaps he did 
not then stand well with the proprietors, who had violated 
their engagement. Certainly he did not stand well with the 
government, because he favored a larger liberty than was 
then allowed, and openly sympathized with Child, Fowle, 
Yale, and the others. The loss that he met with in his 
journey hither, in the fall or early winter of 1646, and the 
subsequent danger of his wife and children, are related by 
our good Governor Winthrop, as if he half believed that 
10 



74 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

they were a punishment for favoring the petitioners. " Pres- 
cott," says he, " another favorer of the petitioners, lost a horse 
and his lading in Sudbury River ; and, a week after, his wife 
and children, being upon another horse, were hardly saved 
from drowning." Mark the issue ; one plunge by that last 
horse, or a little deeper water, and American literature would 
not now be graced by the brilliant classic History of Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella, of the Conquest of Mexico, and of the 
Conquest of Peru. 

The precise time when the associates relinquished their 
purpose is not easily determined. It probably took place 
some time before they made their formal surrender, which 
was not until October, 1647. The Court, — after reciting 
the grant of a plantation made in October, 1645, to Chandler, 
Walker, Davies, Hill, and Barnes ; the death of Hill ; and 
the statement of Chandler, Walker, and Davies, that they 
had taken no part as " undertakers since the grant," with 
their request that it might be " taken in," " manifesting their 
utter unwillingness to be engaged therein, — adds that " the 
Court doth not think fit to destroy the said plantation, but 
rather to encourage it ; only in regard the persons now upon 
it are so few, and unmeet for such a work, care to be taken 
to procure others ; and in the mean time to remain in the 
Court's power to dispose of the planting and ordering of it." 
This was a virtual resumption of the grant. And thus, after 
the labors, sacrifices, and expenses of more than four years, 
the smoke curled up but from a few chimneys; and the 
culture of a few fields was the only indication of the presence 
of civilization. Prescott continuing true, this very month 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 75 

evidenced his determination to persevere, by his purchasing 
of Cowdall, whom I have before named, a house and twenty 
acres of land in the plantation. This was the site, or near 
to it, of the trading-house erected by King and Symonds, 
and was the estate from which the lots of the proprietors on 
the other side of the river afterwards took their beginning. 
Linton and "Waters, and some few others whom I cannot 
name with certainty, also remained steadfast. 

Lands had been laid out very early ; but at what precise 
time, or by whom, nowhere appears. The first associates, 
several of whom had expended labor and money, such as 
Prescott, Linton, Waters, Garrett, and Day, may have made 
some division among themselves. Laurence Waters, who 
was a carpenter, had a tract of seventeen acres given to him 
by the first undertakers, bounded southerly on the north 
branch of the Nashaway river. The railroad passes over this 
land, and the station-house is upon it. Here Waters built a 
house, — the first dwelling-house, I am inclined to believe, 
that was erected in Lancaster. Linton was not far off. 
Whether Prescott first lived on the east side of the neck, or 
on the Cowdall purchase, I am at a loss to discover. The 
probability, that they would wish to be near one another in 
this part of the town, would tend to the former conclusion. 

From this time of the offer to surrender the grant, we 
hear nothing further until 1650. There is some evidence 
that, in the meanwhile, other persons, not many, may have 
joined the adventurers. I have the names of several, but 
cannot yet establish the precise date of their advent. Some 
Sudbuiy men were looking favorably in this direction ; but 



76 



CENTENNIAL ADDKESS 



few were disposed to remove hither, while the General 
Court reserved all their power, either to make an actual 
grant, or remove those who were already upon the land as 
" unmeet for such a work." In May of this year, the in- 
habitants received another rebuke from the ruling powers. 
Suffering much, in the same way as new townships have 
subsequently suffered, by reason of large tracts being owned 
by non-residents, they humbly ventured to ask leave to tax 
these for all common charges. The General Court rather 
contemptuously answered, that the place " is not fit to make 
a plantation." Not indeed that it had not capabilities in its 
eighty square miles to make a goodly town, but because there 
was no ministry maintained there ; and so the petitioners 
were told very distinctly, that, unless they made it appear by 
the next Court that the place was " capable to answer the 
end, they shall be called there hence, and suffered to live 
without the means, as they have done, no longer." The 
resolution was well taken. These few people were without 
a church, the nearest being in Concord or Sudbury. Neither 
had they a school. Thus they were living in violation, open 
violation, of the two cardinal principles of New England 
policy, religion and education, by which the kingdom of 
" Sathan " was to be driven out.* 

I think that it does not appear in what way the handful of 
inhabitants succeeded in quieting the apprehensions, and 
warding off the purpose, of the Court. It may have been 
understood that there would soon be an accession to the 

* It is as " unnatural for a right New-England man to live without an able minis- 
try, as for a smith to work his irons without a fire." — Wonder-working Providence. 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 77 

population, sufficient to satisfy the demands of the public 
authority. It is certain, not only that they were not ordered 
away, but that they remained undisturbed for the two suc- 
ceeding years. They addressed a petition to the Legislature 
in 1652, the contents of which are not known, but which is 
referred to in the following year, as " concerning the settling 
of the place in several particulars." It resulted in the orga- 
nization of the town in 1653. 

Meanwhile, there had been a small addition to the number 
of families, very small, — only nine, all told. Thus ended 
the struggle of ten years. A few men, persevering through 
many difficulties incident to their situation, far beyond the 
confines of English habitation, lived to witness the success of 
their wishes, and to prove to the General Court that the 
persons upon the place were " meet for such a work," and 
that the place itself " was fit to make a plantation." 

On the 18th of May, two hundred years ago, corresponding 
to May 28th of our new calendar, liberty of a township was 
granted, pursuant to the petition of the inhabitants. The 
bill for a township underwent sundry changes before its final 
passage into an act of incorporation, as it may not inaptly be 
termed ; but none affecting its substance. As in the family, 
so in the plantation, one of the chief difficulties seems to 
have been in the baptismal name. Sturdy John Prescott, 
the manifest file-leader in the settlement, was evidently the 
man at that precise point of time held in chief regard among 
all of the little band. The people wished to do him honor 
by a memorial of an enduring nature. So they petitioned 
the authorities that the town be called " Prescott." A deaf 



78 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

ear was turned to the request : his sympathy with Dr. Child 
and his companions, which was ever deemed heretical during 
the lifetime of the colony, may not have been forgotten ; or 
perhaps he was not considered of sufficient general consid- 
eration in the community; or to name a town after any 
individual may have smacked too much of man-service ; or, 
what probably weighed conclusively, he was no freeman; 
and, though he had been in the colony twelve or thirteen 
years, and had sat under the preaching of good Mr. Phillips, 
of Watertown, who we are told on contemporaneous authority 
" preached many a good sermon," he had taken the oath of 
fidelity only the year before. If, therefore, he was not com- 
petent to be elected to any office in the Commonwealth, not 
being a member of the church, and so no freeman, it would 
not have been deemed a good precedent to perpetuate his 
name in the permanency of a town. Therefore, in disregard 
of the wishes of the petitioners, " Prescott " was struck out ; 
and, as the record runneth, the Court, "taking the condition 
of Nashaway into further consideration, do order that it shall 
be called henceforth West Town." But, this not being true, 
as designating the ultima Thule of civilization in that quarter 
of the compass, Springfield already possessing that honor, 
the name found no favor. In fine, it was changed to Lan- 
caster, the name by which this goodly domain should be 
called through coming ages. The reason of its adoption is 
not known, and all speculation upon the subject is unavail- 
able. Let it suffice that it is of goodly sound, and of large 
historical associations in the old world. 

The infant offspring thus having a designation, let us sketch 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 79 

cursorily its early history and subsequent struggles. The 
act of incorporation proceeds upon the expectation that other 
families were soon to join the nine already at the plantation. 
The Court ratify the Indian purchase in its full extent; 
require all to take the oath of fidelity ; provide for the minis- 
try, and for Harmon Garrett and others of the first associates 
who had been at labor or charges for the purchase of lands, 
" although evacuated of their claim." Six men are desig- 
nated, the major part to be freemen, to lay out lands, and 
order the "prudentials " of the place, " until it is so far 
seated with able men as the Court may judge meet to give 
them full liberties of a township according to law." These 
six men were Edward Breck, from Dorchester ; Nathaniel 
Hadlock, from Charlestown ; "William Kerley, from Sudbuiy ; 
Thomas Sawyer ; and from Watertown, John Prescott and 
Ralph Houghton. Of these six, the freemen were Breck, 
Hadlock, Kerley, and Sawyer. Hadlock died soon after, and 
the first division of lands was made by the survivors in 
November, 1653, — on the very republican rule of equality, 
assuring to each man a stake in the community as a freeholder. 
All subsequent divisions were made in proportion to each 
man's property brought into the town. 

In the following spring, the inhabitants felt they were 
quite competent to manage their municipal affairs without 
legislative intervention ; and, making bold to prefer a request 
to that effect, the full liberty of a township was granted 
" until further order." But when they assumed the responsi- 
bility, and came to the practical management of business, to 
which probably not one of them had been trained in the 



80 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

mother-country, they found their want of education and expe- 
rience. After managing as best they might for .three years, 
and meanwhile having had the award of certain arbitrators 
in sundry matters of local difference, they ingenuously confess 
to the General Court their unpleasant situation, and their 
inability to conduct their affairs " either through town-meet- 
ings, by reason," as they say, " of many inconveniences and 
incumbrances," — which, however, they do not specify, — 
or " by Selectmen, by reason of the scarcity of freemen : 
being but three in number, we want liberty of choice." 
They ask for a Committee " to put us," as they say, " in such 
a way of order as we are capable of, or any other way which 
the honorable Court may judge safest and best, both for the 
present and future good of us and our town, and those that 
are to succeed us ; " and " to stand till they be able to make 
return, that the town is sufficiently able to order their pru- 
dential affairs, according as the law requires." The Court 
appointed Willard of Concord, Johnson of Woburn, and 
Danforth of Cambridge, for that purpose, and " to hear and 
determine the several differences and grievances obstructing 
the good of the town, and interfering with its progress." 

These gentlemen accepted the appointment, and busily 
engaged themselves in their duties, — constituting a Board 
of Selectmen to act under them, and defining their functions 
with regard to the settling of a minister, erecting a meeting- 
house, laying out highways and the town-bounds, imposing 
fines, assessing taxes, keeping records, and other such mat- 
ters. They directed the Selectmen to reserve land for five or 
six able men to come and inhabit among them, for their help. 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 81 

Special power was given to them, for the recovery " of those 
fines and forfeitures that are due to the town from such 
persons as have taken up land, and not fulfilled the condi- 
tions of their respective grants, — whereby the common good 
of the plantation hath been, and yet is, much obstructed." 

At the head of the Board of Selectmen, they placed Master 
John Tinker, a man of very good works, notwithstanding his 
name. He was one of the early settlers of Wethersfield, 
Connecticut; afterwards a resident in Boston; one of the 
grantees of Groton, and perhaps for a short time an inhabi- 
tant. In 1657, having purchased of the government the 
trade of Nashaway and Groton, in furs, for that year, he 
removed to Lancaster, perhaps for the convenience of being 
nearer to the Indians with whom he dealt. He was of good 
education, and, rather an unusual accomplishment at that 
day, a very good penman. Some specimens of his skill still 
remain. The Commissioners, to their praise be it spoken, 
and all antiquaries will join in the expression, directed the 
Selectmen " to take special care for the preserving and safe 
keeping of the town-records ; " and they were authorized to 
" procure the same to be written out fairly in a new book, 
to be kept for the good of posterity." The copy was made : 
the few sentences I have just cited were a part thereof. 
All else, original and copy, have long since perished. I 
think that he was very helpful to the town while he remained 
here. In 1659, after a residence of two years, he removed 
to " Pequid," which, being interpreted, means New London 
in the Connecticut Colony. There he was a representative 
in the General Assembly, and afterwards one of the Assist- 
ll 



82 



CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 



ants. He died in 1662, and is commemorated as "a gen- 
tleman of distinction at New London and throughout the 
colony." While he remained in Lancaster, I can have no 
doubt of his being the leading man ; the one upon whom the 
Commissioners placed chief reliance in carrying out their 
purposes. Goodman Thomas Wilder, who was admitted to 
the Charlestown Church in 1640, and was made freeman in 
1641, came to Lancaster in July, 1659, and succeeded to Mr. 
Tinker in the office of Selectman. 

The minister was liberally dealt with, considering how few 
were the people, and how moderate their circumstances. He 
received the conveyance of a handsome landed estate, and 
<£50 per annum for salary. But, with all this, quiet and 
harmony did not reign uninterrupted. Altercations occurred 
here as elsewhere. In their narrow condition, they found 
occasions of controversy and strife as readily as in larger 
communities in other days. These appear from incidental 
hints in the fragmentary records that survive. No attempt 
is made to conceal the fact of their existence, though we are 
not led to understand in what they consisted. Mr. Tinker, 
in addressing the Commissioners in behalf of the Selectmen 
for leave to impose penalties, that their power might not be 
" a sword tool and no edge," remarks that " the town is in 
some silence at least, and we hope in a good preparation to 
after peace. Yet it is hard to repel the boilings and breaking 
forth of some persons, difficult to please ; and some petty 
differences will arise amongst us, provide what we can to the 
contrary." 

In 1665, the Commissioners, at the request of the inhabi- 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 83 

tants, consented to grant them liberty among themselves, and 
power to elect their own Selectmen. At the May session, 
1673, twenty years after the incorporation, and thirty years 
after the first plantation, the town petitioned that the Com- 
missioners might be discharged from further duty, with 
thanks " for their great pains and service for so long a 
season." The Commissioners consented to the petition ; and, 
satisfying the Court that for many years the people had been 
trusted, and were able to manage their own affairs, the Court 
granted them liberty " accordingly as other towns ; " — and 
thus the long state of pupilage came to an end. 

The town-covenant, which in its body purports to be in 
1653, contains the names of planters and proposed planters, 
who subscribed as late as 1660. It is drawn up with a good 
deal of specialty. It provides for building up the church, 
and for the honorable support of the pastor. " Profane and 
scandalous persons " were not to be admitted as inhabitants ; 
nor any " notoriously erring against the discipline and doctrine 
of Church and Commonwealth." Thus Church and State 
were to be guarded ; and, to keep out the gentlemen of the 
long robe through all future time, they covenanted not to go 
to law in civil matters, but to submit to arbitration, unless, as 
they very prudently make reservation, " the matter be above 
their ability to judge of." Such a case soon arose. Henry 
Kerley, a somewhat ambitious, quick-tempered individual, 
who afterwards rose to be a captain, kept possession of 
a valuable tract of land that had been intended for the 
ministry ; a part of which had been given to him, according 
to the record, "without that due consideration that might 



84 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

have been." By way of peace-offering, the town made a 
proposition, which, if he should accept, then well, — other- 
wise " the town to proceed as they see cause, or as counsel 
may advise, for recovering their own interest therein." 
None dissented but " John Prescott and Laurence "Waters, 
who voted negative ; but, at the same time, Henry Kerley, 
being present, would not accept of it." Forthwith prepa- 
rations were made for a regular legal battle. A committee 
was chosen to prosecute the town's case for the lands kept 
back by him, " notwithstanding such loving tenders as hath 
been made by the town." And " they are to use all such 
means as their discretion may lead them, or as counsel may 
advise them to." The determined attitude of the town, how- 
ever, prevented the necessity of further proceeding. Kerley 
yielded, and the matter was settled. 

With all their large territory, they were unwilling, for 
some years, to admit more than thirty-five families to the 
plantation. They may have honestly supposed, as they had 
at that day very liberal views of landed possessions, that two 
miles square would be but a fair allowance for a family. 
But, when the surface of the territory was laid open to culti- 
vation, and its generally productive character became known, 
they ordained that so many might be admitted " as may be 
meetly accommodated, provided they are such as are accept- 
able." With this change, the population, prosperity, and 
wealth of the town began rapidly to increase. 

None of the first associates seem to have returned to take 
advantage of the privileges secured to them by the act of 
incorporation. During the eight or ten preceding years, 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 85 

while Prescott remained, the others found residences more to 
their mind. Norcross, I suppose, soon returned to England, 
where the increase and prosperity of the Independent Church 
afforded an opening for many of the clerical order. Stephen 
Day, the locksmith and printer, to whom the town gave some 
land in 1G65, on the westerly borders of the plantation, 
" paying as other men do," continued to live in Cambridge ; 
and there he died. Skidmore removed to Stratford, Connec- 
ticut, several years before the incorporation of the town. 
Symonds, from the circumstance that his baptismal name 
is not given, and his being thus involved in the whole 
family of that name, cannot be traced. Garrett remained in 
Boston, baving previously been of Charlestown. As for Hill, 
Walker, Cowdall, and Jenkes, if they were of the first band, 
— the pioneers, — Hill was dead, Walker continued to keep 
a shop in Boston, Cowdall was at Boston, and Jenkes at 
Saugus. 

I have been more minute in narrating the efforts and diffi- 
culties from 1643 down to this period, because the early 
incidents of the plantation, tlie scattered fragments that we 
can gather up, are rather remote from general inquiry, and 
are well deserving of preservation. At any rate, I think, they 
will be found interesting to those present, who claim lineage 
from the valley. To enter into a detail of the more promi- 
nent events in the history of the town would carry me very 
far beyond the utmost limits of this occasion, and might not 
possess any general interest. 

The town, as I have said, was now beginning to enjoy a 
healthful, prosperous condition. The number of inhabitants 



86 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

was constantly increasing by birth and immigration until 
.the fatal year of 1675-6, when there were at least fifty 
families in the place. More than a hundred and seventy 
births are recorded before that year, and but a few more 
than one quarter of that number of deaths. There were 
also many new comers into the place. Marriages were early ; 
the increase was rapid ; and I can err but little in my esti- 
mate of a population exceeding three hundred persons, and 
less than three hundred and fifty. All now dwelt in peace ; 
with a minister deserving and receiving respect ; a united 
people, some few engaged in the mechanic arts, but most of 
them farmers, cultivating the soil for the generous grain, and 
the orchard for its fruits, and living in friendship with the 
natives upon their western borders, far away from aggression 
and war, from public discord and private contention. Let us 
enter into their humble habitations, and view in imagination 
their manner of life. The elders, passing their days in toil 
through the summer, gathered together in the evenings of 
winter from their not very distant habitations to talk over the 
events of their early life in the mother-country, — the difficul- 
ties they encountered in their attempted embarkation, some 
with their wives and children, others with their affianced ones ; 
their adventures on these western shores before they found 
a pleasant resting-place in this remote valley of the Nasha- 
way, with its broad acres and peaceful waters ; and then the 
blessing of Heaven upon their labors, so that they have not 
sowed in vain, but that an abundant harvest has just been 
vouchsafed to them ; — and then discoursing of the future 
of the plantation ; what relations, what friends of former 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. s 7 

years, would yet rejoin them from their ancestral home, and 
what others were preparing, when the spring should open, to 
leave the narrower acres of the older settlements, and unite 
with them in tilling this virgin-soil ; — and then, reverting to 
the affairs of the town, they ask each other, Is each man as- 
sessed justly for the public charges ? Is the school properly 
taught ? Are good Master Rowlandson's homilies listened to, 
and profited by, as they should be ? Then they plunge into 
deep argumentations upon dogmas that have puzzled wiser 
heads, and defend their worthy minister against any leaning to- 
wards the Pelagian or Arminian or Antinomian heresy. Then 
they touch upon their neighbors, — all are their neighbors ; 
the remarks made by this goodman or that goodwife ; and 
how the younger, not regarding their wilderness-condition, are 
giving in to the fashions of the towns on the Bay, because an 
occasional ribbon or a bit of tiffany is detected upon the dress 
of the fair maiden of the valley, or the young man rejoices in 
some trinket, — a present from that same maiden, or from a 
dear relative in the old world. They touch upon family joys ; 
the birth of a child, adding so much to the expected solid 
wealth of the population ; the birth of twins, their goodliest 
heritage. They touch upon family griefs, and join in lament- 
ing that one and another of those who bore with them the 
long deprivations of forest-life are rapidly passing away ; how 
many of the wives of their associates have been called from 
earth, — Joane, the wife of goodman John White and mother 
of Madam Rowlandson ; Mary, the wife of goodman Richard 
Smith ; Mary, the wife of goodman John Smith ; Elizabeth, 
the wife of goodman Edmund Parker ; Ann. the wife of 



B8 centennial address 

gooclman John Moore ; Martha, the wife of goodman John 
Rugg, surviving one of her twins but six days, and dying on 
the same day with the other; Ann and after her Bridgett, 
the wives of goodman Thomas Kerley, sen. ; — nay, that 
death had not spared the planters themselves ; but that, just 
as the wilderness and the solitary place were glad for them, 
Richard Linton, the old man of the settlement, Thomas James, 
John Smith, William Kerley, sen., together with Thomas 
Joslin, John White, John Whitcomb, sen., and Thomas 
Wilder, — ancestors of a numerous posterity, and all of 
whom had been of service in the plantation, — had passed 
to their rest : that even the heart of their good pastor had 
been sorely tried by the death of his father, Thomas Eow- 
landson. All these within twenty years from the incorpora- 
tion of the town. There, in yonder burial-place, repose the 
undistinguished remains of those who toiled and suffered 
and enjoyed here, undisturbed even by the thunder of the 
steam-engine as it courses beside their humble resting-place. 
And then, as they turned to more joyous themes, would come 
up the new engagement, creating a profound sensation 
throughout the little community, for usually both parties be- 
longed to the plantation, and were known to all; the sons 
having the good taste to take to themselves wives from the 
daughters of their own people ; the daughters, on their part, 
not objecting to the sons. 

Newspapers, of course, they had none : there were none 
in the colony. Once in a few months, a stray item would 
reach them by some one returning from the Bay, affording 
subject for conversation for a length of time in proportion to 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 89 

its rarity. * And they would discourse of the old Pequot 
war, of the entire destruction of the tribe as a distinct people, 
and the bravery of the English troops ; and would institute a 
comparison between the matchlock and the arrow : while ever 
and anon, looking into the future, some old planter would 
touch upon the probability of other Indian wars, and would 
quiet all fears because of the feeble condition of the Nashaway 
and Nipmuck Indians ; the many converts to Christianity ; 
their great distance from any powerful tribe ; and the terror 
inspired by the skill, the valor, and the increasing numbers 
of the English. 

Thus in quiet they would pursue the even tenor of their 
way, fearing nothing so much as danger to th«r sheepfolds 
from the prowling wild beasts, or the failure of their crops 
through the irregularities of the season. But these scenes of 
tranquillity, at any assignable distance from the busy world, 
were soon to be interrupted. " The warwhoop " was to 
" wake the sleep of the cradle." 

After the terrible vengeance executed upon the Pequots, 
the power of the English was so highly estimated, that the 
Indians could have but little heart to enter into a contest. 
It must have seemed to them hopeless. Add to this, that 
the confederation of the United Colonies — Massachusetts, 
Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven — gave such an 
assurance of strength, as to confirm the reluctance of the 
tribes to engage in hostilities. Peace was thus secured for 
a period of nearly forty years ; and, almost continuously 
during that period, the power and consolidation of the 
colonists were progressive. 
12 



90 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

The last great struggle was Philip's war. All subsequent 
were mere skirmishes of outposts : that was for life or death, 
success or extermination. Begun in Plymouth Colony, it 
soon extended to the Massachusetts. The master-spirit of 
the Wampanoags combined, as best he could, various of the 
tribes to make one last vigorous effort to destroy the colonists. 
The tide of war, after it entered our borders, swept on from 
Mendon through Brookfield, and reached Lancaster on the 
2 2d of August, 1675. At this onslaught, eight persons were 
killed. The powerful Narragansetts had not yet joined in 
the war, though at heart with Philip. They were temporiz- 
ing at this time. Their overthrow, early in the succeeding 
winter, was^overwhelming, — final. In this attack upon 
Lancaster, we see the hand of the Jsipmuck Indians, from 
their scattered villages : and the question arises, whether 
the Nashaway tribe then joined the great leader. I am not 
aware that any contemporaneous authority asserts it; but we 
may well presume, feeble as they were. — knowing, too. that 
the English were not in sufficient force to protect them, and 
having now a Sachem represented as hostile to the planters, 
— their native sympathies, as well as their notions of safely, 
would lead them to desert the banks of the "Washacum. and 
arrange themselves by the side of their countrymen. Ill 
advised indeed. The event proved this ; but who can blame 
them for preferring their own people, and all the free pur- 
suits of savage life, to a close intercourse with strangers ? 

"We may imagine in part, surely we cannot to its full 
extent, the great dread that seized upon the little settlements 
on* the frontier. They were at a distance from any place of 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 91 

retreat, and in constant fear, by night and by day. Their 
own defences, which might have answered against an open 
enemy of the same description whose approach was heralded, 
were insufficient to guard against surprise from a lurking 
foe, with noiseless tread, and the first intimation of whose 
presence was the death-shot and the warwhoop. The garri 
sons, so called, were no sure protection of the inhabitants in 
their daily pursuits and the ingathering of their harvest. 
And thus the gloomy autumn of the year, with the fall of the 
leaf, became typical of their own fall and ruin. Throughout 
this period, and until late in the winter, they lived in an 
apprehension scarcely less terrible than the reality. The 
fall of 1675 passed, and still they were not again molested. 
The commander of the Middlesex regiment was active and 
constant, to the full measure of his military resources ; setting 
in order the garrisons, and ranging through the forests along 
the line of the frontier with troops of horse. This was the 
only force, during the deep snows of a New-England winter, 
that could be of any service. A few weeks after the destruc- 
tion of the Narragansett fort, the remnants of the tribe fled 
in detached parties, and were pursued by the English soldiers, 
through the dense woods, toward Marlborough and Lancaster, 
but without much success. The soldiers, having had a 
wearisome campaign in the Narragansett country, in a bitter 
season of the year, were ordered home for the purpose of 
recruiting themselves ; it being generally supposed that the 
enemy were too much weakened and dispirited to venture an 
assault upon the border towns. Mounted troops also were 
out in various directions. One company pursued the enemy 



92 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

in their retreat into the Nipmuck country, but without any 
greater success ; for, on being pressed by the horsemen, they 
would scatter in different directions, and find security in the 
swamps. Early in February, these troops were compelled to 
return from their distant excursions by want of provisions. 
The Narragansetts, Nipmucks, and others joined their forces ; 
and this whole frontier lay exposed to their tender mercies. 
But the frontier was too extensive to be guarded at all points, 
even by the whole force of the colony. The enemy knew 
this full well, and therefore established themselves, in the 
depth of winter, in the hill-country in the westerly part of 
this county, whence they could send out their war-parties in 
different directions, without fear of surprise. The Nashaways 
were then with them, ready to guide the hostile force, and do 
battle against their old friends in the valley. The Sagamore 
of the tribe, — ill-omened Shoshanim, — is reported to have 
said in melancholy pride, probably soon after the destruction 
of Lancaster and Groton, when elated with success, that, " if 
the English would beg peace of him, he would let them have 
peace ; but that he would never ask it of them." 

On the 10th of February, answering to the present 20th, 
1676, they surprised this town. The inhabitants, as they 
were best able, entrenched themselves in the garrisoned 
houses. Most of the other buildings fell a prey to the flames, 
which soon arose in one general holocaust from every part 
of the town. More than forty persons, — an eighth part of 
the whole population, — were either killed on the spot, or 
carried into captivity. Within sight of this place, on the 
other side of the little stream that courses peacefully through 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 93 

the valley, was the dwelling-house of the village-pastor. It 
had been fortified with such humble means as were afforded 
in the small plantation. There were heard the yell and war- 
whoop of the savage, the shrieks of women, the groans of the 
wounded and dying ; weeping and lamentation from many a 
Rachel. The column of smoke ascends, and soon the flames 
burst forth through every crevice, and the little manse is a 
blackened ruin. The few brave men of this garrisoned 
dwelling, with the helpless women and children, forced out 
by the flames, became prisoners in a hopeless captivity. No 
monument, either marble or granite, marks the spot of the 
deadliest onset the town ever experienced. It is still iden- 
tified in yonder enclosed field, though every vestige has 
disappeared from the surface. In one generation more, what 
is now unwritten history will become indistinct tradition, and 
all memory of that local habitation will have perished with 
the dead ages of the past. 

The tale of Lancaster's great grief has often been told. 
It is familiar to many who hear me. It still lives in vivid 
tradition in the midst of this people, the descendants of the 
early planters. To describe the various incidents of this 
attack, — the history of the war as connected with this town, 
full of interest in all its particulars, — would consume too 
much time in this day's proceedings. I will only add, that 
the house of good Master Rowlandson was the only fortified 
building that was destroyed. The other garrisons were 
saved, in the first instance, by the Indians scattering them- 
selves on this and the other side of the river for the purpose 
of plunder, of which they took great store ; and, before they 



94 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

rallied to assault those garrisons, the brave Captain Wads- 
worth, who fell at Sudbury in April following, made a forced 
march from Marlborough with his company, and arrived just 
in season to save the remaining inhabitants from a lingering 
captivity or a dreadful death. Some few houses were left 
standing ; and the trembling remnants of the people secured 
themselves in two garrisons, with a small detachment of 
soldiers which the Governor and Council had ordered for 
their protection. And there they remained for a month. 
The Indians were on every side, so that they could have 
hardly escaped, had they made the attempt. Groton fell at 
this time, and calamities were rife in other quarters. "Well 
might they exclaim, in the words of the brave Jewish leader, 
" Behold, the battle is before us and behind us, and the water 
of Jordan on this side and that side, the marsh likewise and 
wood, neither is there place for us to turn aside." Thus 
distressed, they sent a most imploring petition to the Governor 
and Council, that a guard of men with carts might be ordered 
to Lancaster, to remove them to a place of safety. In immi- 
nent danger by day and by night, they could hardly venture 
over the threshold of their garrisons. All abroad was the 
silence of death. They looked out only upon the gloomy 
ruins of their habitations. With touching simplicity, they 
say in their petition, " Our state is very deplorable in our 
incapacity to subsist : as to remove away we cannot, the 
enemy has so encompassed us ; otherwise for want of help 
and cattle, being most of them carried away by the barbarous 
heathen ; and to stay disenabled for want of food. The 
town's people are generally gone, who felt the judgment but 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 95 

light, and had their cattle left them with their estates. But 
we, many of us here in this prison, have not bread to last us 
one month, and our other provisions spent and gone for the 
generality. We are sorrowful to leave this place. Our 
women's cries does daily increase beyond expression ; which 
does not only fill our ears but our hearts full of grief." It 
is pleasant to notice that most of those brave spirits who still 
lingered in these places were of the earliest settlers and their 
children. They had become identified with this spot ; here 
had long been their home ; here they wished to live ; here 
they wished to die in their nest, and be buried amid their 
kindred. Yes, truly did they say, " We are sorrowful to leave 
this place." 

This petition was signed by those of the inhabitants who 
were in garrison near the entrance of the present " centre 
road ; " perhaps the precise spot, certainly very near to it, 
where Laurence Waters erected his first house. These men 
were — Jacob Farrar ; John Houghton, senior, and John 
Houghton, junior ; John Moore ; John, Job, and Jonathan 
Whitcomb ; and Cyprian Stevens. Those in the only remain- 
ing garrison on the other side of the river join in the petition, 
and add : " We are in like distress, and so humbly desire your 
like pity and fatherly care, having widows and many fatherless 
children." John Prescott, senior ; Thomas Sawyer, senior, and 
Thomas Sawyer, junior ; Jonathan Prescott ; Thomas, John, 
and Nathaniel Wilder ; John Rigby ; John Roper ; and 
widows Wheeler, Fairbanks, and Roper. 

A few weeks after this petition was delivered, a sufficient 
force was despatched to remove these people to places of 



96 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

safety ; and all were rescued, save John Koper, who, on the 
very day of the removal, was slain by the enemy in ambush. 
No sooner had they left the valley, and proceeded on their 
way, journeying towards the sea, than all the remaining build- 
ings in the plantation, two only excepted, were fired and 
consumed. Not a white man was left on the territory of 
Massachusetts west of Concord and Marlborough, and east 
of the feeble towns upon Connecticut Elver. And thus it 
was after ten years of laborious exertion, first finding favor 
to begin a plantation, and to possess some corporate franchises, 
and then slowly working its way to a condition of comparative 
prosperity, through a period of less than twenty-three years, 
— days of tranquillity and promise, — the whole settlement 
was destroyed at a single blow, and the territory around 
became a desert. More had been lost to the plantation in 
one day by death and captivity than through all its former 
years. Peace came at last j but it brought no signs of human 
life in any part of the valley. The wild beasts of the forest 
again roamed at large through the fields and gardens lately 
smiling with cultivation. They alone remained in security. 
Man did not adventure here again for several years. 

But, sad as was the fate of our people, that of the Nashaway 
tribe was equally so. The remnant of the white men could 
return, and others could come and rebuild the waste places ; 
but not so with the poor natives. Once swept from their 
homes, there was no return to them, in these pleasant places, 

"Of 
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, 

Or sight of vernal bloom ; 

But clouds instead, and ever-during dark." 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 97 

It is very easy now to do them justice, however hard it 
Mas during the war, and for many years after. I have sug- 
gested several reasons why the Nashaways joined Philip ; 
but, after all, there may have been another and more cogent 
reason. They were suspected ; all the Indians living near to 
the English were suspected ; even the seven towns of Chris- 
tian Indians were suspected; and Gookin tells us, in his 
touching narrative, how unjustly and with what bitterness 
they were treated. If the Christian Indians experienced such 
hard measure, what could the feeble tribe of the Nashaways 
expect, who had not the same protection ? Were we able to 
gather contemporaneous facts, which we are not, I think we 
should find, that however much they were inclined to peace, 
and to kindly relations with the English, they were constantly 
subjected to persecution ; and, if not early driven to war by 
the necessity of their position, must assuredly have retreated 
from their old neighborhood, when they found that the Chris- 
tian converts, to the number of five hundred or more, were 
torn from their homes, under circumstances of aggravated 
cruelty, and confined on Deer Island in a state of suffering 
which their historian has so feelingly described. 

Sadly, but of necessity, as I would fain believe, the Nasha- 
ways joined their countrymen, and fell with them. After the 
peace, their last Sachem, Shoshanim, taken in the woods 
beyond the Merrimack, was carried to Boston, and there was 
tried and executed. The feeble remnants of the tribe dis- 
persed to different places. Some of them, with the Nipmucks, 
and other Indians, amounting to two hundred and fifty fight- 
ing men, besides women and children, fleeing in terror to the 
13 



98 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

westward, were overtaken between Westfield and the Hudson 
river by the English troops. Many of their number were 
either slain or taken captive. About two hundred escaped, 
crossed the river below Albany, and were received by a 
tribe of Indians in that vicinity, with whom eventually they 
became incorporated. A large part of the tribe, however, 
together with other Indians from the neighborhood of Lan- 
caster, escaped to the right bank of the river Piscataqua. 
Mingling with some of the Eastern Indians at Dover, they 
were surprised by a detachment of the Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire troops. Those of the prisoners who had 
been involved in the war were separated from their compa- 
nions, and were marched to Boston. The Sachem Shoshanim, 
and several other leaders who were executed, avoided the 
dreadful fate which befell their followers, of being sold abroad 
to taste the bitterness of perpetual slavery, or, as was remarked 
with cold cruelty, " to try the difference between the friend- 
ship of their neighbors here and their service with other 
masters." Harrington makes no mention of this circumstance ; 
and we could wish, for the honor of human nature and of our 
people, that it were not true. It was true. Perhaps some 
of those very men, who in the lifetime of Sholan had joined 
the good chief in welcoming the English, were delivered 
into the house of bondage. Those who escaped capture took 
refuge among the Pennecooks, and thenceforth disappear 
from view. 

Thus ends the last sad chapter of the brief and imperfect 
history of this tribe. It is matter of regret that the worthy 
Harrington, who delivered the historical sermon at the end 



AT LANCASTER MASSACHUSETTS. 99 

of Lancaster's first century, and whose venerable form some 
few now present can recall, estimated so lightly the wants of 
posterity, as to despatch the whole history of the tribe in a 
few lines, and that of the town in a few pages. When he 
stood up in the presence of your forefathers, one hundred 
years ago, individuals, his parishioners, I think, were riving, 
of sufficient age to remember the horrors of 1676 ; and there 
were many then riving who must have had goodly stores 
of narrative from their parents and other old people. Very 
pleasant would it have been, very gratifying to this audience, 
exceedingly so to those who claim kindred in blood with the 
early inhabitants, to know something more of the history of 
Sholan's tribe, the Nashaway Indians ; their numbers, tradi- 
tions, habits, localities, the succession of their chiefs, anecdotes 
of their intercourse with the planters, the reasons for their 
joining against their old friends the English, how many 
survived, and whether any of the poor creatures, who fled 
from hot pursuit to the east or to the west, ever ventured back 
in time of peace to visit the graves of their fathers, — with 
all such particulars as, gathered up with a little diligence, 
might have been woven by a competent hand into an interest- 
ing and instructive story. 

Several years elapsed before the inhabitants had the heart 
to return to their old homes. They came to a spot 
whose gloomy desolation reminded them vividly of the great 
mournful event of their lives, — of the murder of relative, 
friend, neighbor. The same sun shone upon them, the 
forests put forth their tender leaves, and the orchards blos- 
somed, as aforetime ; but little remained to give token of 



100 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

a former residence of rural peace and Christian civilization, 
save the house of worship, an humble building on yonder 
hill-side, left unharmed amid the general destruction. By 
the year 1682, there were some seventeen or eighteen families 
in the town ; a number not greater than was here in 1654. 
These were chiefly the old settlers, turning back again with 
willing steps ; with several others whom we now for the first 
time recognize. The town began gradually to exhibit signs 
of returning prosperity. Attacks were indeed made in subse- 
quent Indian wars that would admit of a detailed narrative, 
but they did not prevent the steady growth of the place. 
No life was lost after 1710. 

In 1701 a very large addition to the territory on the west 
was obtained by a conveyance from George Tahanto, nephew 
of Sholan. From this territory, Leominster was subsequently 
taken, together with the larger part of Sterling.^ The title 
to this land was confirmed by the General Court in 1713, 
and the current of population in a few years began to set 
towards it. Lancaster was now regarded as an old town; 
the general mother, whose children, declaring their ability 
to take care of themselves, were rising up on either side, and 
demanding their portion of the inheritance. First in order 
came Harvard, whose beautiful swell of land, called Still 
River, looking down upon this valley from the north-east, 
had been under cultivation before the close of the seventeenth 
century. Bolton soon followed, retaining within its limits 
the range of hills that skirts Lancaster on the south-east, 
together with the Wataquodoc, a name so familiar in our 
local history. After Bolton came Leominster, carved out of 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 101 

the new purchase. These three towns have each its separate 
history of the old French war and the war of the Revolution. 
Their ecclesiastical history, in the great controversy of opin- 
ion, is shared with Lancaster. Sterling, that had essayed in 
1733, without success, to be an independent town, and became 
the west precinct in 1741, remained a part of Lancaster until 
1781. Her history is for a longer time and more intimately 
identified with the parent-town, running all through the 
exacting period of the French war, and the exhausting efforts 
and sacrifices of the Revolution. The southerly part of 
original Lancaster, and the northerly part of Shrewsbury, now 
constitute the town of Boylston ; while Clinton, with Boylston 
on her southern border, and much the smallest in superficial 
extent, but growing with a rapidity unknown to the other 
portions of the old territory, now rejoices in a separate organi- 
zation. 

It would be interesting, if practicable, to trace the progress 
of population through successive stages in the town's history ; 
but for a portion of the time, that is to say, from the resettle- 
ment until 1764, a period of more than eighty years, the data 
are not sufficient to enable me to make an accurate estimate. 
An ancient authority, I know not how much to be relied on, 
states that there were seventy-nine ratable polls here in March, 
1708. Taking the usual proportion assumed, of one ratable 
poll to every four or four and a half inhabitants, we should 
have in this year a population of three hundred and sixteen 
or three hundred and fifty-five, or about the same number as 
at the opening of Philip's war. I think, however, that it was 
larger. It should be remembered that many of the old 



X 



102 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

planters, with their children and grandchildren, returned 
about the year 1682, followed by divers new families. The 
list of the subscribers to the minister's house, in 1688, con- 
tains eighty names, chiefly of inhabitants, and most of these 
were heads of families. By March, 1687, there had been 
thirty births. In the settlement of garrisons in 1692, fifty- 
four men are named as detailed to particular garrisons, with 
their families. These facts lead to the conclusion that the 
people were as numerous in 1692 as in 1675. We then 
have sixteen years of growth before reaching 1708 ; constant 
growth, I believe, without any real drawback from inter- 
vening Indian hostilities. In 1764 the territory originally 
granted to Lancaster, together with the Tahanto purchase, 
contained 703 houses, 763 families, and 4,884 inhabitants, 
including 46 negroes and mulattoes, and one Indian ; giving 
6.95 to a house, and 6.40 to a family. In 1790 there were 
6,352 inhabitants ; 8,492, in 1840 ; and 12,615, in 1850. In 
1764 Lancaster alone contained 301 houses, 328 families, and 
1,999 inhabitants ; while in 1790 the same territory contained 
2,880 inhabitants; and Lancaster, as then diminished, 1,460. 
The largest population of Lancaster was at the beginning of 
the Revolutionary War, before the west precinct was made a 
separate town. It then numbered, according to the best 
estimate I can make, about 3,000 persons. In 1776 the rata- 
ble polls were 672. The war occasioned a diminution of the 
number of inhabitants ; the population was larger, by more 
than one hundred, in 1775 than in 1781. In 1840 it was 
2,019 ; and in 1850, owing to the erection of Clinton into an 
independent town, it was reduced to 1,688. 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 103 

The number of slaves in 1754 was five. The census of 
1764 does not distinguish between free blacks and slaves. 
It classes them together, and they number twenty-six. 
Several of them served faithfully and honorably in the Revo- 
lutionary "War for considerable periods ; among them, no less 
a personage than " Julius Caesar " was in the three years' 
service. In 1754 there were three slaves in Bolton, two in 
Leominster, and none in Harvard. Lancaster, Harvard, 
Bolton, Leominster, Sterling, Boylston, and Clinton, — divi- 
ded, but still united ; with common interests, pursuits, and 
hopes j mother and daughters, all in good accord and har- 
monious intercourse, — may they feel no rivalship but for 
the promotion of good institutions, the industrial arts, social 
virtues, liberal culture, and enlightened religious faith. 

The town, shorn of its territorial glory, at one time almost 
sufficient for a German duchy, has reached a point, I trust, 
where no further reduction will be demanded by any com- 
bination of interests, real or imaginary. Well might the 
inhabitants say, on any new application, as their fathers did 
in 1741, when the people on the west were striving for 
separation, and say it too with greater reason, that granting 
the request will make the town " very irregular " in territory, 
" and be the means of those living in the extreme parts of 
the town applying also to be set off; whereby the descendants 
of the ancient inhabitants that remain in the town, who un- 
derwent the heat and burthen of a tedious and bloody Indian 
war, will be left naked, and wholly destitute of that strength, 
assistance, and ability to support the gospel ministry as they 
should, and to defray other town-charges. There are lour 



104 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

large bridges that must be kept in good repair, besides other 
weighty charges the town has been wading through for many 
years." It is not well to destroy the character and associa- 
tions of an old town. They are valuable historically ; they 
are valuable as a matter of sentiment, and for the large and 
intense sympathies that have been gathering and clustering 
around them for centuries, increasing with the successive 
generations issuing from the primal heritage. This results 
from the same law that rules the individual in his genealogical 
tastes. In the one case, he would identify himself in blood 
with an ancestral line ; in the other, with a locality hallowed 
by the reminiscences of the ages in which that ancestry 
lived and acted. For no light matter should a good old town 
be divided and subdivided, till its identity is marred or lost. 
The reasons should be cogent, unyielding, paramount. 

Notwithstanding the general prosperity that prevailed after 
Queen Anne's war, alarms from the Indian enemy were not 
at an end. The troubles in Europe always vibrated across 
the Atlantic through the colonies, and continued on this side 
of the water after the war had subsided abroad. Lancaster, 
however, had but little to fear for herself. Settlements 
were rapidly extending beyond her frontier, and insured her 
safety. But the border-towns were in constant apprehension ; 
and Lancaster, so long trained to hostile encounter, must 
furnish from her abundance for their protection. During 
the years 1723, 1724, 1725, the larger part of the military 
force of the town was engaged in scouting parties in search 
of the enemy, through the forests and over the mountains. 
One expedition proceeded beyond the Monadnock and the 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 105 

head-waters of the Merrimack, to the north of Lake TVinni- 
pisseogee, stretching to the base of the "White Mountains, and 
returning by the valley of the Saco to the ocean. Again, in 
1748, after the Austrian war of succession was at an end, 
and also in 1749, the same system was renewed. More 
distant scouting parties were required, and a great amount of 
military service was performed. Though but few men were 
lost in these various expeditions, they were no holiday ex- 
cursions. They were attended with hazard ; the labor was 
hard and exacting, and renewed, in a modified form, the toil 
and exposure of the early settlers. 

There were other calls to arms besides those I have 
mentioned. Lancaster furnished her quota of men in the 
unfortunate campaign in the Spanish war of 1739—40; at 
the siege of Louisbourg in 1745, when one of her sons 
commanded a regiment; at Nova Scotia in 1755, in which 
expedition she furnished a captain and a large company of 
soldiers ; as she also did commanders of regiments and other 
officers throughout the French war ; with a host of hardy men 
borne upon the rolls through the bloody scenes at Lake 
George, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point, in the expedition un- 
der Amherst in 1759, and in the last great battle on the Plains 
of Abraham, that terminated the French empire on the conti- 
nent of North America. Indeed, it would seem, from a cursory 
examination, that almost all the men capable of bearing arms 
were out during some portion of this protracted and san- 
guinary contest. And they were no mercenary Swiss, but 
the real brave yeomanry of the land, exchanging, at the call of 
their country, the field of agriculture for the field of battle. 

14 



106 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

The same promptness, energy, and zeal became manifest 
at the first bursting forth of the long-gathering storm of 
the Revolution. The votes at town-meetings, the resolves 
passed, were not mere words, vaporing words, expiring 
with the breath that uttered them, or fading away with 
the ink that recorded them ; not like modern political re- 
solves, — mere shams. Oh no! they had substance; they 
had emphatic meaning ; they were carried out, even to blood 
and to death. The general sentiment was all on one side ; 
the time for action had arrived, and the town was ready for 
action. 

At the alarm on the 19th of April, the company of minute- 
men, under Captain Benjamin Houghton, marched with all 
speed for Lexington ; and the troop of horse, under Captain 
Thomas Gates, pushed for Cambridge, joining the forces that 
were intent upon driving the English troops into Boston ; 
or, as his clerk phrases it on the company roll, " to stop the 
regulars from coming out into the country, sent out by 
General Gage." Ten men from this small troop enlisted in 
the service of their country. Lancaster soldiers, at present I 
know not how many, were at the battle of Bunker Hill. One, 
at least, was killed in the battle, and another died of his 
wounds. The roll of Houghton's company, if in existence, 
will probably show the number and names of the Lancaster 
soldiers who fought on that memorable day. There were six 
from this town who accompanied Arnold in his memorable 
and disastrous expedition against Quebec, in the fall of 1775. 
Large numbers enlisted in the Massachusetts regiments 
before the Continental army was formed, and afterwards in 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 107 

the Massachusetts line in the Continental service. The 
whole number of soldiers in the service, exclusive of those 
who were at Lexington and Bunker Hill, exceeds three hun- 
dred. This was about one-half of all the ratable polls, from 
sixteen years and upwards. After deducting all the ratable 
polls under eighteen years, and excluding those at the other 
end of the scale, too old for service, it is pretty near to a 
demonstration that almost all the able-bodied men were in 
the field during the war. I find them distributed through 
nearly all of the Massachusetts regiments in the Continental 
army. Wherever these regiments marched, and they were 
in most of the battles of the Revolution, there Lancaster was 
represented ; and many of her officers were distinguished for 
bravery. 

Of the descendants of the early settlers in the male line 
who " did the state some service " in the field, I enumerate, 
independently of those who were engaged on the 19th of 
April and on the 1 7th of June, no fewer than ninety-two, viz. : 
of the names of Atherton, Divoll, Farrar, Prescott, one each ; 
Beaman, four ; Fairbanks, five ; Gates, two ; Houghton, nine ; 
Lewis, three ; Moore, five ; Bugg, five ; Boper, three ; Sawyer, 
seventeen ; White, five ; Whitcomb, seven ; Willard, eight ; 
Wilder, fifteen. Doubtless the towns that issued from Lan- 
caster, and other places where those names were found, would 
add largely to this list. 

I have no disposition to trumpet the part taken by the 
people of the valley in the war for independence. It is not 
necessary to make proclamation of services and sacrifices ; 
but I believe, in respect to contributions of men and material 



108 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

supplies, Lancaster would be found, on examination, to have 
contributed her full part, and to have done so as freely and 
promptly as any other town whatsoever. 

It would be interesting to consider, at some length, the 
various efforts that have been made by your predecessors, as 
well as yourselves, in the great cause of education ; but I 
must confine myself to a very few remarks. The whole 
history of the public schools in this place for the first seventy 
years, owing to the destruction of the records, is involved in 
hopeless obscurity, with the exception of an incidental men- 
tion here and there. At one time, the town was "presented" 
for want of a schoolmaster ; but, " representing to the Court 
their circumstances, and their care for instructing of youth," 
their excuse was accepted. Some four years afterwards, they 
were " presented " again, for want of a grammar-school ; but 
were discharged on payment of costs, having satisfied the Court 
that they had engaged " young Mr. Pierpont," a Cambridge 
graduate, for their instructor. After 1725 the records are 
entire : they show that some pains were . taken with the 
training of the children, though in a less degree probably 
than at the present day, — less actually, I mean, not less in 
proportion to their humble means. Among the instructors, 
there have been many highly educated men, subsequently 
distinguished in professional and public life. 

Passing over all intermediate time, I will merely show 
how Lancaster stands at the present day, compared with 
other towns, in the facilities she furnishes for the education 
of her children. The last and very excellent report of the 
Board of Education affords the means of stating this with a 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 109 

good degree of exactness. From 1841—2 to 1851-2, the 
school-tax throughout the State has increased seventy-six per 
cent. ,* while the increase of population has been but thirty- 
five per cent., including the concourse of foreigners, who have 
poured in upon us like a flood. Again, according to the 
census of 1840, the tax averaged seventy cents to every in- 
habitant of the State, while the census of 1850 gives ninety- 
one and a half cents. In 1841 the sum raised for each child 
between the age of four and sixteen years was $2.79 • in 
1851, for each child between five and fifteen years of age, it 
was $4.49. 

What, then, is the part taken by Lancaster in this progres- 
sive improvement ? The report proves that you are above the 
average in almost every respect. Of the fifty-eight towns in 
Worcester County, Lancaster is the twelfth in length of time 
of schools, the twenty -first in the average wages of male teach- 
ers, and the fortieth in the average wages of female teachers. 
In 1850-51 Lancaster was the twenty -ninth town in the State, 
and the second in the county, in the sum appropriated for 
each scholar, viz. $4-71^; Worcester alone preceding her. 
In 1851-2 Lancaster was the fifty-second town in the State, 
and the third in the county in this respect ; Worcester and 
Milford preceding her. We thus have the absolute sum in 
each town, and the proportion of each. But the true test of 
public spirit is the amount raised in proportion to the wealth 
of the people. This is ascertained by the valuation of 1850, 
much more accurate and more to be relied on than the valua- 
tions of preceding decades, and this from a circumstance not 
praiseworthy to our people. When the representation in the 



110 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

Senate had reference to taxation, it was the practice of the 
valuation committees, we are told, and I have no doubt many- 
present could vouch for its truth, " to appraise the property- 
just high enough to prevent loss in their senatorial repre- 
sentation, and just low enough to prevent an undue propor- 
tion of taxes." The alteration in the Constitution before 
1850, prescribing population for the basis in the Senate, 
rendered that " artful dodge " no longer necessary. In the 
amount of money raised in proportion to the means of the 
people, the little town of Wellfleet, on the sands of Cape 
Cod, stands at the head of the Commonwealth ; Milford, in 
this county, stands second. Lancaster stands seventieth in 
the State, and sixth in the county, — Milford, Webster, 
Clinton, Bolton, and Fitchburg only before her. In average 
attendance upon school, Pelham, in the hill-country, with its 
deep winter snows, stands first in the Commonwealth ; Lan- 
caster, the ninety-third. In this county, New Braintree 
stands first ; Lancaster, twenty -eighth, with an average attend- 
ance of seventy-eight and a half per cent. 

The ecclesiastical history of Lancaster is one of signal 
peace. The six ministers who, in their service at the altar, 
cover a period of a hundred and ninety-six years, will com- 
pare very favorably with their fellows in any other town. 
They were all men of pure lives and conversation, dwelling 
in the tents of their people. Of the living it is not becoming 
to speak. I hold converse only with the dead, — Rowland- 
son, Whiting, Gardner, Prentice, Harrington, Thayer, — all 
sons of Harvard. The three first were victims, directly or 
indirectly, of the Indian wars. The term of service of the 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. Ill 

three last extends over a space of a hundred and thirty-two 
years ; an average of forty-four years to each. May future 
years evidence the same permanence in the pastoral relation, 
the same mutual confidence, the same generous sympathies ! 

What dispensation of the word was enjoyed by the 
planters during a year or more after the incorporation of the 
town, I think, is unknown both to history and tradition. 
Master Joseph Rowlandson, sole graduate in the class of 
1652, under the presidency of the glorious Dunster, was 
the son of Thomas Rowlandson, of Ipswich, who took the 
freeman's oath in 1638. He came to this plantation two 
years after he left college, and continued to preach several 
years before his ordination. He remained the pastor until 
the town was broken up in Philip's war, and he was driven 
with his flock to seek refuge elsewhere. The heavy calam- 
ity that befell him, not only in the loss of his property, but 
in the death or captivity of his family and relations, is suffi- 
ciently well known by those versed in your contemporaneous 
history, and the simple narrative penned by his excellent 
wife after her return from dreary bondage. He was a 
popular preacher in the plantation. He received a unani- 
mous call, with terms of settlement and accommodations 
more liberal for the slender means of the few humble plan- 
ters than is usually found in the richer heritage of the present 
day. Tradition speaks of him as a worthy, faithful, useful 
man. But of his ministerial gifts and graces we have no 
record, other than what can be gathered from a few surviv- 
ing facts. "We may form some estimate of his wisdom and 
sound judgment and liberality, from the circumstance that, 



112 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

when the strife was hot between the First Church in Boston 
and the present Old South, — because the wives of those 
who formed the Old South Church were debarred from 
communion in the First Church, for having partaken of the 
service at the Old South with their husbands, — Rowlandson 
was of the council called by the latter church. All Boston, 
all the Bay churches, were in a state of excitement. Social 
life was disturbed, while there were no political troubles to 
divide public attention. The council embraced some of the 
most distinguished of the clergy in the colony. By their 
" Result " they placed the First Church in the wrong, and 
recognized the Old South as properly constituted, with 
power to admit those women and others to their communion. 
This was an important decision at that day, as affecting the 
rights and independence of the Congregational churches. 
Rowlandson preached for some time in Boston, and probably 
in the other churches in the Bay. The topics of three of 
his discourses, being all of which I have any note, may 
perhaps show the tendency of his mind towards the religious 
affections. These were — on divine influence in answer to 
prayer, on the forgiveness of God, and on love to God. The 
good man, having collected his family together after many 
wanderings, went to Wethersfield, in the colony of Connec- 
ticut, and there became the colleague of the Rev. Gershom 
Bulkley. The committee who had been directed to inquire 
" after an able minister for the town " recommended Mr. 
Rowlandson. " The town," so runs the record, being " very 
desirous of Mr. Rowlandson's settling there in the work of 
the ministry, in order to his encouragement thereunto, allow 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 113 

him <£100 per year, and the free use of the parsonage lands 
and houses, during his continuance amongst them in the 
work of the ministry." To this they added, " in order to his 
procuring of a settled habitation for himself in the town," 
the sum of one hundred pounds, " to be paid twenty pounds 
a year for five years." But his career in "Wethersfield was 
short. He died on the 24th of November, 1678, amid the 
general lamentation of his people, as is shown by their sym- 
pathetic and unusual regard for his widow. The record 
continues : " Mrs. Rowlandson shall have allowed for this 
present year Mr. Rowlandson's whole year's rate, which was 
formerly promised, which will in all amount to six score 
pounds ; and, from henceforth, the town shall allow the said 
Mrs. Rowlandson thirty pounds a year, so long as she shall 
remain a widow amongst us." 

Mr. Rowlandson had a library valued at <£82 ; a much 
larger library, I should suppose, than could be found in 
most studies at that day. Hence I would infer that he was a 
student, and kept up with the current of religious specula- 
tion in dogmatic theology, and indulged himself perhaps 
somewhat in the profane literature of the time ; not getting 
rusty because he had been planted in a remote settlement 
and almost wilderness-condition. He was an author too. 
Cotton Mather, indeed, quaintly tells us, that he was an author 
of " lesser composures out of his modest studies, even as with 
a Cesarean section forced into light." Do not think — for- 
bid it, shade of the departed ! — that this points to the matter 
of his " composures ; " it regards their bulk only ; and they 
may have been, in thought and expression, equal to the 

15 



114 



CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 



larger, more ambitious " composures " of the other divines 
named by Mather. It cannot, of course, refer to the pas- 
quinade, in rhyme and prose, which he posted up on the door 
of Ipswich Church, while in the Senior Class at Cambridge.* 
Cotton Mather may never have heard of that. 

In the first Indian incursion, the town was destroyed, but 
the minister survived. In a subsequent war, the town sur- 
vived the attack; but the minister lost his life. The Rev. 
John Whiting, of the class of 1685, son of the Eev. Samuel 
Whiting, of Billerica, had preached nearly two years in the 
town before he was invited to the cure. His people gave him 
a new house and some pleasant acres, the spot on which the 
second part of this day's celebration is to be enacted. He 
lived in peace with his parishioners, that is, with all the town. 
This is all I can say of his ministry. Seven years of good ser- 
vice, after his ordination, had passed quietly away in parochial 
ministrations, when the old enemy again invaded Lancaster, 
and Mr. Whiting was slain. When attacked, we are tolc 
that his life was offered to him if he would but surrender. 
If the thought were for a moment entertained, that thereby 
he might save his life, the second thought rushed in, that a 
surrender would involve captivity, perhaps torture and death. 
The resolution of refusal was at once taken. He was over- 
powered when fighting valiantly, and fell, at the age of 
thirty-three. His young wife, Alice Cook, from Cambridge, 
survived him to mourn his loss during a long widow- 
hood. 

* See Appendix to the " Narrative of the Captivity and Removes of Mrs. Mary 
Rowlandson." Sixth edition, published by Carter, Andrews, & Co. Lancaster, 1828. 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 115 

After an interval of several years, Andrew Gardner, of trie 
class of 1696, discoursed to this people, much to their liking. 
They invited him to remain with them. He accepted the 
invitation. The appointed day for his separation and con- 
secration for the work was approaching, when his death oc- 
curred, — the most melancholy in the whole list of the deaths 
of the clergymen of the town. He was slain, not by an enemy, 
but fell by the hand of one of his own people. The Indians 
had been abroad, all about Lancaster, a few months before, 
and had killed several persons. At this very time a party of 
them had been discovered at Still River.* The garrisons, 
then numerous, were hastened to by all the inhabitants on 
any alarm. Mr. Gardner's residence was a garrisoned house. 
A near neighbor of his was set on the watch, with others, to 
guard and protect the pastor, his wife, and household. The 
sentinel, while all was quiet within and abroad, was walking 
his lonely round inside of the fort, — now stopping to listen 
for the almost noiseless tread of the Indian, as slight as the 
rustling of a leaf in the lightest breeze, — when suddenly he 
heard a noise, and, turning, dimly espied some one coming 
down out of the " upper flanker." Supposing him to be one 
of the enemy, the sentinel called, but no answer ; he called a 
second time, but no answer. He fired, and the shot took 
fatal effect. He rushed up to his wounded enemy, as he 
supposed, when the dying groans of his pastor met his ears.f 

* Now Harvard. 

f This account differs in some of its circumstances from the one given by Har- 
rington. It is taken from the coroner's inquest, and must be considered conclusive. 
All tho accounts exonerate the sentinel from any rash hasto. The inquest held him 
guiltless, at the moment when the feelings of all were the most dreadfully lacerated. 



116 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

No imputation rested upon the character of the unhappy 
sentinel, the actor in this terrible tragedy ; but a life- 
long burthen was his, — a suffering far greater and more 
enduring than he had been the innocent cause of inflicting. 
A deep gloom settled down upon the whole plantation. 
Their young minister, not yet thirty years of age, — beloved 
by all, — on the eve of his ordination, — here, with his wife, 
at his own home, with years of enjoyment and sympathy in 
prospect, in the scene of his appointed labors, suddenly 
passes to the spirit-land, and there is a general weeping and 
lamentation. We know that he was beloved. " His people," 
says Harrington, " had an exceeding value for him." I will 
show it from even more competent authority; out of their 
own mouths, in their own simple language, as they gra- 
duate each successive loss higher in the scale. " We have 
lost," say they, " several hundreds of pounds estate by the 
Indians, in their last attack, together with the loss of our 
meeting-house, burnt by them ; and more particularly that 
late awful stroke of God's hand, the last week, in the loss 
of our reverend minister, who was every way worthy and 
desirable ; whose loss is ready to sink our spirits, — having 
one minister slain by the Indians, and now another taken 
away by a more awful stroke." 

Mr. Gardner was son of Captain Andrew Gardner, who 
was killed in the Canada expedition ; the same gentleman 
upon whom Judge Sewall called, in 1686, to deliver to him 
a commission. Gardner " disabling himself," Sewall told him 
that u he must endeavor to get David's heart, and that, with 
his stature, would make a very good ensign." The widow 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 117 

of the minister was subsequently married to his successor, 
the Rev. John Prentice. 

No church-records remain, not a vestige, during the time 
of Rowlandson, Whiting, and Gardner ; nor am I aware of 
any extant writing by any one of those gentlemen. I can 
only say that they received the best education the coun- 
try could give, and that they were willing to cast their lot 
here, in this secluded spot, — to be cut off, in a great 
measure, from the more cultivated and refined life around 
the Bay, — and to devote their energies and their lives to 
the sincere teaching of the word. 

The lives of Whiting and Gardner were extinguished in 
blood, youthful blood. A calmer day, a long day of summer, 
arises upon the vision ; and all along its hours we witness 
other and more enduring forms, — Prentice, Harrington, 
Thayer, each fulfilling an extended mission, and each coming 
to the " grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh 
in his season." 

The first half of the last century had nearly closed when 
Mr. Prentice died. For forty years he had been set for 
the defence of the gospel in this place. The whole period 
was one of profound calm in religious matters. A new 
society had indeed been formed, but it was in the westerly 
part of the town, now Sterling, and grew naturally out of the 
necessities of the people, from their numbers, and from their 
distance from the place of public worship. They were 
separated, but still united ; and the minister of the new parish 
took to wife a daughter of Mr. Prentice. Harvard, Bolton, 
and Leominster, from a like necessity, had been constituted 



118 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

distinct towns ; and yet the old town continued large in 
territory, population, and wealth. 

The character of Mr. Prentice was that of a man of peace. 
He was faithful to his convictions, forcible and plain as a 
preacher, dignified in manner, and direct and earnest in his 
appeals. His printed discourses do credit to the style of 
preaching of that day. He was gentle, but yet very firm, 
and exhibited the fruits of a good religious life in his daily 
conduct. He was no innovator upon ancient forms, and 
struck out into no new paths. Satisfied with the way of the 
churches, he asked for no new guides. At least, I think so. 
I do not know that his orthodoxy was questioned, or that he 
had any tendency towards Arminianism. But, however this 
may have been, his church, from year to year, was gradually 
departing from the doctrine of the earliest churches in Mas- 
sachusetts. In the controversy that rent in twain sundry of 
the congregations in the province, in the latter part of his 
ministry, caused by the advent of Whitefield, the church of 
Mr. Prentice remained unscathed. Individually, he was 
opposed to the course of that most eccentric, most eloquent 
preacher, if I interpret aright the remark made by a brother 
clergyman, that they " who knew him esteemed him for his 
commendable steadiness in these uncertain times." Com- 
mendable steadiness in these uncertain times. We cannot 
mistake the meaning of this phrase, when we recollect that he 
was one of those ministers who decidedly opposed the course 
of Mr. Bliss, of Concord, a most earnest disciple of White- 
field ; and that he joined with the Council in advising the 
disaffected parishioners of Mr. Bliss to secede, and support 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 119 

public worship among themselves, unless certain concessions 
should be made. 

Bitter, very bitter and unchristian as controversies have 
since been in the bosom of the Congregational Church, they 
were equally so — will not history bear me out in saying, 
more so ? — at the time of which I speak. 

The formation of a second parish led to the induction of a 
minister, — the Rev. John Mellen who, for many years and 
through various scenes, continued with his people until he 
was rather unceremoniously, and not according to Congrega- 
tional usage, ejected from his cure. After preaching for 
some years to a portion of his old hearers, whose attachment 
to him still continued, he removed to Hanover in this State, 
where he remained in the ministry until the time of his death. 
No name connected with the churches in this neighborhood 
in the time of Mr. Mellen, is more fruitful of remark than 
his. For talents and learning I should say that he was de- 
cidedly at the head, though for martyr boldness he was not 
to be compared with his brother in the ministry and by mar- 
riage, — Rogers of Leominster. As the west parish became 
an independent town, but more particularly as Mr. Mellen's 
intellectual and theological character has been pretty fully 
delineated by the faithful and accurate historian of Sterling, 
the late Isaac Goodwin, I do not propose now to traverse the 
same ground, or give my own view. The discussion would 
occupy some time, and lead me away from the more appro- 
priate consideration of that which has remained Lancaster. 

The venerable figure and flowing white locks of the excel- 
lent Harrington, as they have been described by some of his 



120 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

people, and are recollected doubtless by some within the 
hearing of my voice, now pass before me in vision. We 
behold the man uniting in his numerous years a long past 
age, with one but lately closed upon us, and partaking of the 
character of both. Born early in the last century, when his 
country was an integral part of the British empire, he lived 
on in connection with this people through the old French 
war, the war of the Revolution, the rebellion of 1786, — 
down almost within view of the present century, — witness- 
ing the greatest changes in our whole civil history, and in 
our ecclesiastical history borne on vast surges of opinion, 
whose strife has not subsided to the present day. Trained 
at college under the administration of the catholic, mild, and 
judicious Wadsworth, Mr. Harrington seems to have par- 
taken of the same traits of character. His early course in 
the profession, after he was installed in this town, exhibited 
that theological tendency which continued through life ; that 
" steadiness in those uncertain times " for which his prede- 
cessor had been commended. The course of Mr. Bliss did 
not please him. He justified the seceders from his church, 
and manifested no sympathy with the measures of Whitefield. 
Not that he was without zeal, but rather that he possessed 
it differently tempered, — possessed it as fused into and mo- 
dified by the constitution of his own mind and affections. 
The key to the ministerial course of Timothy Harrington 
may be found in the text to the discourse preached at his 
installation, — " And made myself servant to all, that I might 
gain the more ; " servant to all in the good sense of the Apos- 
tle, consisting with entire faithfulness and self-respect. The 






AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 121 

preacher concludes : " And now, Timothy, keep that which 
is committed to thy trust, and make thyself as Paul did, a 
servant to all, that you may gain the more." He received 
from his people that hereditary respect which was then enter- 
tained for those of his order, and, what was higher and better, 
respect that he won for himself as a man and a Christian. 
The whole testimony borne by those of his flock who knew 
him well, and have lived to the present generation, is that he 
possessed mildness of disposition with that fervor of spirit 
which led him to rebuke iniquity. Loving peace for its own 
sake, and because his temperament inclined him to it, and of 
calm judgment, he was slow to adopt new theories, and take 
a bold stand in their favor. One who knew him well — who 
knew of what he affirmed — describes him as " a model of min- 
isterial excellence ; " as possessing " a good portion of scientific 
attainments ; singular pertinency and fervor in the perform- 
ance of devotional exercises ; a pattern of Christian cheer- 
fulness and affability, of sympathy with the sick and afflicted, 
and of compassion to the poor." A man thus constituted 
well deserves the appellation of the Christian gentleman. 

It is true of Mr. Harrington, as of some others of the 
clergy after the middle of the last century, that a change of 
theological opinions took place. But I do not now and here 
propose to open the old controversy of 1757, which has 
excited some discussion of late, nor to inquire whether at that 
time, when Mr. Harrington was of the Council that censured 
Mr. Rogers, of Leominster, who had departed from the faith 
of the New England fathers, his own opinions had become 
modified, and if so how far. Perhaps he would not be able to 
16 



122 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

trace step by step the processes going on in his own mind, 
as it was swayed in one direction and another by metaphysi- 
cal questions and doubts, bristling up at every point. It 
might well be, — and probably was, — that his opinions be- 
came modified by very gradual stages. Meanwhile the old 
theories, and the forms of words, consecrated by long and de- 
votional association, would still hang about the doors of the 
mind. It would be difficult, perhaps not possible, to mark 
the precise time when the old opinions were beginning to 
drift from their fastenings towards the wide sea of specula- 
tion, and before the new found safe and pleasant anchorage. 
And what an x ious trouble in the interval ! what fears, lest, 
after all, the old, time-honored, and revered were true : and 
the new but the result of a weak understanding, a pre- 
sumptuous imagination, and carnal reasoning ! The subject 
was momentous, — momentous both to the pastor and to the 
people of his charge ; for error might run down through 
long lines of generations with soul-destroyiug influence. 
And a pastor might be entirely conscientious in deciding 
that a brother had departed from the faith, when certain 
operations were going on in his own mind, imperfect as yet, 
but shaking his traditions, and leading him in the end. by 
an intellectual necessity, to the same conclusions. 

The long career of Mr. Harrington's colleague and suc- 
cessor * closed in our own time, and within the fresh remem- 
brance of many now present. He came to this place in the 
palmy days of its social refinement, when it had recovered 
from the depressing influences of the Revolution, and pros- 
* The Rev. Nathaniel Thayer, D.D. 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 123 

perity and plenty abounded and harmony prevailed within 
its borders. He came from the office of instruction in our 
venerable University, where he himself had been successfully 
trained in all the learning there to be acquired. He came 
with the reputation of sound scholarship, with a pleasing 
address and conciliating deportment. All circumstances were 
favorable, and justified that future, in labor and service ex- 
tending over a long period, which already has become the 
past, consigned to the province of history, 

Possessing highly respectable and well-disciplined intel- 
lectual powers, and distinct perceptions within their entire 
range, he soon took a prominent stand in this pulpit. 
Clearness of thought gave clearness of expression ; and he 
felt no desire to stretch beyond the limit which God had 
assigned, and indulge in dreamy speculations, grasping at 
vague ideas that supplied no furniture to the mind, and 
faded away ere they could become subject to exact ap- 
prehension. He was, I believe, entirely conscientious in 
his views of truth in all matters of doctrinal theology, as 
well as in the science of morals. With distinctive differences 
of opinion, I have no concern on the present occasion ; but I 
doubt not that he brought his best faculties to the examination 
of matters of faith, and that his convictions were strong as well 
as sincere. These he maintained honestly and openly, under 
all circumstances, through all contentions of opposing sects. 
His discourses were calm, plain, practical, solid, — not the 
issues of a fertile imagination, to which he laid no claim. If 
deficient in warmth, as interpreted by some minds, they were 
not deficient in earnestness, and in that zeal which is accord- 



124 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

ing to knowledge. His temperament led him away from 
impassioned appeals and exhortations, and led him as directly 
to the inculcation of truth in the way best suited to that 
temperament. A clear and distinct enunciation, with great 
gravity and solemnity in the conduct of the service, gave 
power to the devotional spirit, and additional weight and 
authority to the spoken word. 

Controversies of a sharp character were rife in the commu- 
nity during a large portion of his ministry. When one side 
was charged with exalting reason above revelation, it was met 
on the other side with the argument, that the highest reason 
was in every way consistent with revelation ; and sermons, in 
consequence, took more generally the character of addresses 
to the understanding in the inculcation of religious truth. 
Ardent and quickening appeals to the affections and to the 
fears were rather avoided ; and the whole of the great truth 
was not evolved, that man believeth with the heart as well as 
the understanding. This was the feature of that day; the 
necessary result, perhaps, of the state of the question then 
and our pastor was formed upon that principle. A more 
evangelical style of discourse, as it is termed, belonged to a 
subsequent period, when the first great controversy had sub- 
sided. 

Among the preachers of his own denominational views in 
this quarter, he was long regarded as a leading divine, and 
his services were highly acceptable. He was looked to for 
counsel by the young men of his faith, whose ready resort 
to him was received in great kindness of spirit ; while the 
opinion of his sound judgment, prudence, and practical good 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 125 

sense, caused him to be sought very frequently to parti- 
cipate in ecclesiastical councils. 

He was not an easy recipient of new opinions ; $ and this, 
not so much from dislike of change, or dread of the labor of 
examination, but because he had reached his conclusions, his 
conscientious convictions, after elaborate investigation. On 
the other hand, he had no bigoted attachment to the past as 
such, as if the wisdom of ages, so called, involved all truth, — 
no dead conservatism ; but welcomed progress, if well assured, 
from a right point of departure. Devoted to the interests of 
his people, he sought no change of place, engaged in no 
pursuits that would draw him away from his appropriate 
calling, — sought only to live and die in the midst of his 
labors here. Hence his contentment was manifest. He 
did not ask wealth, or a large compensation for himself, 
and suitable to the character of the town, — no compensation 
is large for the clergyman who devotes all his time, talents, 
afFections, and sympathies, to the good of his people, — but was 
satisfied in that respect with a very humble return for a life- 
long devotion to its interests. He had but little opportunity 
for exact study ; for his parish was large in numbers and in 
territory, and much time was taken up in visits of affection 
and Christian consolation ; much also in attention to the 
numerous schools of the town, in which he ever took a deep 
and active interest. Still I believe he kept up with the 
history of theology, and the more solid reading of his day. 
In his general intercourse with society, as well as in the more 
intimate relations of private and domestic life, where the 
man is revealed, he exhibited native dignity and self-respect. 



126 CENTENNIAL ADDRES? 

a tender regard for the feelings of others, conciliating man- 
ners, and Christian courtesy. He was charitable to the 
extent of his means, eking out those means, beyond his salary, 
in ways to which country clergymen are so often obliged to 
have recourse. 

He was eminently a prudent man; in temper mild, but 
firm and well-disciplined; so that, controlling himself, he 
could exert a large and healthful control over others ; hav- 
ing his trials, too, amid a varied experience, verging upon 
a half-century, like that of others in his walk in former and 
later times. 

As a result of this imperfect delineation of one possessing 
so many qualities of worth and excellence, it will of course 
be inferred that he was a cautious man. He was so. He 
was cautious in forming his judgments of others, and very 
charitable in those judgments. He would rather extenuate, 
would rather win back the erring by gentle appliances, than 
set down aught in harsh reproach and sharp denunciation. 
He ever counselled peace. He was a man of peace, a great 
lover of peace, willing to sacrifice much for it, — though 
never to the sacrifice of his self-respect, — and was ready to 
take a decided stand, when required by the cause of religion 
and good order. 

His career was long, prosperous, and useful. Until near 
the close of his earthly labors, there was but one organized 
religious society throughout this large territory. He won the 
affectionate regard of a numerous people ; he gained a wide 
influence with the generation upon the stage, when he first 
entered upon this field of his active work, — gained it also 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 127 

with that generation which grew up with him, and gained it 
with their children after them. 

I have thus very briefly sketched the history of Lancaster, 
but out of a large accumulation of material have been able 
to seize upon only a few of the most prominent points in its 
humble story. In its infancy, distant from other habitations, 
we have seen its repeated difficulties, its first struggles into 
life, and how long it was before the men who had ventured 
to plant their stakes here began to feel a comfortable assu- 
rance of strength in these pleasant places. Then, following 
down the line of time for some twenty years, we are startled 
when the long calm is broken by the dreadful war-cry of 
the savage ; when the garments of parents and children are 
rolled in blood ; and the town one general desolation, without 
an inhabitant. Slowly the old planters, surviving the 10th 
of February, — surviving captivity, surviving their resi- 
dence in other towns, — are seen returning to these familiar 
seats, and new faces appear of those who had no part in 
the early labors of the plantation. We have seen the 
gradual growth of the town ; its vein of prosperity sometimes 
at fault, broken in upon by the Indian enemy, but still with 
its course onward in the last century, when fragment after 
fragment of the territory had been broken off, each to revolve 
on its own centre, creating within itself its means of social 
order and improvement, and leaving the old sun of this little 
system to shine with diminished light ; but without long 
lament, and with final joy that so many little republics had 
been wrenched from it by no unlineal hand. Wc have seen 
its subsequent prosperity, its care for education, and its 



128 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

interest in the well-being of religious institutions. We have 
seen the peaceful temper and conduct of the people in all 
matters of theological doctrine and parochial concerns. 

Not being to the manor born, as a disinterested observer 
I may claim for Lancaster a good name among her multitudi- 
nous sisters. I think it will be found in the character of her 
inhabitants, in their general observance of law, in their love 
of a well-regulated liberty, in the promotion of the interests of 
religion and education, in the exhibition of the amenities and 
charities of life, in the long period through which we have 
been looking back, that old Lancaster need not be ashamed 
of her history, — nay, that she may rejoice that she has been 
permitted by the blessing of God to bear a worthy part in 
helping, in her humble sphere, those great influences which 
have made historical Massachusetts what she is. 

And here permit me to turn aside for a few moments, and 
dwell upon the history of Massachusetts. How large the 
theme ! How much worthy of record it embraces in the civil 
and social condition of the State in all times ! To what other 
Commonwealth, I would ask (in no boastful vein, but grate- 
fully), does she stand second in historical importance, and 
in present comparative influence ? Here the sacred fire of 
liberty kindled from the old Puritan stock in England, like 
the fire of Prometheus received from heaven, was cherished 
and preserved. Here, from the earliest spark that warmed 
and cheered our fathers, we can trace one long line of" light 
down the pathway of her history to the present day ; and, 
running back on the same line, we reach at once the elements 
whence her measure of success on this portion of the Western 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 129 

Continent has been derived, — bravery in encountering peril, 
resolution bearing her up under every difficulty, perseverance 
carrying her through every adversity ; — in the stern struggle 
of the great Indian conflict, in which almost every male 
from sixteen to sixty took part, and fears were seriously 
entertained for the very existence of the colony ; — in the 
longer peril of the Revolution remaining steadfast, — sad- 
dened at times, but never desponding, — buckling on the 
harness with alacrity, taking courage and looking to God for 
assistance. In her history, too, may be found the inception 
and growth of that feeling and principle which may be truly 
called revolutionary in a high and worthy sense, because 
founded on self-reliance, self-respect, knowledge of individual 
right, the equality of all men before their God, and a deter- 
mined spirit of resistance against aggression, limited only by 
the power to sustain it, or that could endure to wait patiently, 
biding its time. We gather from her history, in its very 
beginning, a true notion of the dignity of labor. The stub- 
born soil yields to diligent and long-continued effort ; forest 
after forest disappears ; the solitary places change to smiling 
towns and villages, the abodes of quiet and peace ; the re- 
wards of industry appear on every side, and the refinements 
of life spread through the whole mass. 

And then behold her intellectual life, traced to the great 
fountains of English learning, flowing through her learned 
and accomplished sons, our liberally-educated ancestors, 
each generation gaining upon the immediately preceding 
one, till it is illustrated and developed in the fulness of the 
stream that now gladdens all our borders. Consider her 
17 



130 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

religious institutions, free from papacy, hierarchy, and pres- 
bytery. — from all external power and domination : and 
remember that it was mainly for the enjoyment of these 
institutions untouched, without being called to account 
from any quarter, that your ancestors and mine came to 
these shores ; while enlarged civil rights, the equal rights 
of all in presence of the law, were also in contemplation. 
We meet with earnest and long-continued controversies. 
involving manifold forms of metaphysical speculation, pro- 
found dogmas, and nice distinctions, which, however little 
practical in their bearing, sharpened the faculties, and led. 
bv gradual stages, through many an encounter, to the estab- 
lishment of entire religious freedom. For a long period, the 
historian will find that all the great discussions taxing the 
intellectual ability of the colony were confined to theological 
polemics, when they did not touch upon matters of civil 
polity : and. though the reader may marvel that men should 
grow so hot and fight so hard and so long upon vanishing 
points, he will be able to appreciate the scholastic vigor 
manifested in these discussions, and to discern the strength 
they gave to habits of thought, and the power they infused 
into the great mind of the colony. These men reasoned high 
indeed, with earnestness, with abiding belief in the vital 
importance of the subjects in controversy to tUe honor and 
stability of the church, and the good of mankind. 

The history of Massachusetts, in its wide extent, is sub- 
stantially the history of Xew England for a long series of 
years. She was early the governing and guiding power. 
Connecticut sprang immediately from her bosom, and at once 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 131 

took her impress ; New Hampshire and Maine, over whom 
she saw fit to extend her jurisdiction and government, 
had occasion ever to bless her name for the salutary power 
she exercised, — sharp, at times, no doubt, and stringent, 
but wholesome to the building up of commonwealths ; while, 
from a reflex influence, our little sister Rhode Island, born 
out of opposition, and, as some would say, persecution, has 
been a sharer in the benefits bestowed by her elder sister.* 
The influence of Massachusetts, thus leading and controlling, 
moulded the character of the New England people into one 
homogeneous whole, with the traits of energy, prudence, 
thrift, sagacity, vigilance against every encroachment on indi- 
vidual right in civil and religious matters, obedience to law, 
and with sympathy for the oppressed. She was conservative, 
and yet progressive ; sometimes in the wrong ; blinded at 
times, but soon becoming clear-sighted ; of great heart, beating 
with high impulses ; of noble purposes, carried out in noble 
deeds ; of large enterprise, followed by individual and general 
success. All this was derived from that State, " inferior to 
many others in extent, wealth, and commerce," says a distin- 
guished man out of our confines, " but superior to them all in 
intellectual and social development." And for all this, for all 



* Even good Roger Williams, whose exclusive spirit sensibly diminished on his 
banishment, and who finally became well-tempered and wise, found his little colony 
too turbulent for his comfort or control, and gladly would have come under the juris- 
diction of the Massachusetts. In a letter which he addressed to tho General Court, 
15, 9 mo., 1055, as " President of Providence Plantations," he says: " llonoured Sirs, 
I cordially professe it before the Most High, that I believe it, if not only they " (viz. 
four English familios at Pawtuxet), " but ourselves, and all the whole country, by 
joint consent, were subject to your government, it might be a rich mercy." — Hutch- 
inson Papers. 



132 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

that we possess and enjoy, under the good providence of 
Almighty God, we are more indebted to that first impress 
stamped by the sturdy old Puritans upon our institutions, 
upon Massachusetts' individual character at the start, than to 
all else at all time. 

The history of Massachusetts is still a fresh subject, — in 
hackneyed phrase, is yet to be written. Hutchinson, whose 
name has come down to us with so much obloquy, that justice 
has not been done to his merits, was endowed with much 
more than common ability, — a correct, impartial, laborious 
writer, learned in all that pertained to his subject, careful in 
examination, cautious in expression, and in many ways enti- 
tled to great praise. He has preserved many facts that other- 
wise would have been lost ; and many others he would have 
preserved, but for the drunken, infuriated mob that destroyed 
his mansion-house, with the accumulated historical treasures 
of thirty years' gathering. In his last volume, covering the 
whole period of the controversy before the Eevolution, con- 
sidering that he was act and part therein, that he was engaged 
in exceeding bitter political warfare, and had often measured 
swords with the great leaders of the revolutionary party, he 
has observed a measure of impartiality and dignity truly 
commendable. But Hutchinson's tendencies are more im- 
portant to us in his preceding volumes, embracing the form- 
ing period of the New England character and institutions. 
He was a man of phlegmatic temperament — his portraits 
show it — his work shows it ; — was of cold exterior like a 
very Puritan, but not, like the Puritan, of intense purpose. 
He was not of a nature to understand and delineate the 






AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 133 

qualities of the progressive Common-wealth ; and, if he had 
been, his false position and association growing naturally 
out of the constitution of his mind, even when liberally in- 
clined, would have defeated all generous views, and prevented 
his success. He did not appreciate the magnitude of his 
subject, nor comprehend the great elements of the people, 
and the wonderful destiny to which they had been called. 
He is hedged in by prerogative, — hampered by station, — 
never committing himself to a full and free glow of feeling ; 
and fails, therefore, in tracing the gradual development of 
civil and religious liberty, working itself out to perfect form 
through all intervening obstacles. He construed the old 
charter like a common lawyer touching the relations between 
the colony and the mother-country. He viewed the colo- 
nists early and late as mistaken in their theory of their rights, 
while he expresses himself ready to excuse them, because 
some of the nobility and principal commoners in England 
early entertained the same theory. Dependence he regarded 
as a duty under all circumstances, and could scarcely con- 
ceive of a state of affairs — a degree of oppression — that 
would justify resistance. Hence he wholly fails in estimat- 
ing the constant sensitive feeling manifested in a long line 
of instances, running through more than a century, against 
interference from abroad. It became his greatest pride in 
every event to exhibit the most devout loyalty of a subject ; 
and all his love of country was at last absorbed in allegiance 
to the crown. Mighty dreams of ambition laid fast hold of 
him, and he fell — fell below the depth of plummet, as poli- 
ticians untrue to a great and holy cause have fallen in every 



134 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

age. His enlightened and valuable service for a long series 
of years in the political affairs of the Province ; his ability 
and impartiality in a high judicial station, once gratefully re- 
ceived and freely acknowledged, were all sunk in the popular 
estimation, and in the judgment of the wise, when, deserting 
the cause of liberty in his native land, he looked to the 
throne for promotion, wealth, and power. 

But, in addition to all this, Governor Hutchinson's History 
ends with the year 1774. Judge Minot, in his faithful and 
excellent History, chiefly considers the course of events 
from 1748 to 1765. "We are without any worthy commemo- 
ration of the old Commonwealth from the time of Hutchin- 
son's departure for England, through the Revolutionary War 
down to the present generation. Meanwhile the materials 
have been constantly accumulating. Winthrop's Journal, 
the corner-stone of our history, existing in manuscript until 
near the close of the last century, and known only to Hutch- 
inson through the dilution of Hubbard, but now in the hands 
of the public through the exact labors of its learned and ac- 
complished editor, — the archives of the Commonwealth, — 
county and town records, — town histories, — pamphlets, — 
newspapers, — letters, — the collections of historical societies 
printed and manscript, at home and abroad, — the treasures 
of the Plantation Office, and other foreign sources, — afford 
a mass of authentic facts in rich profusion, all ready to 
be combined, and to be moulded into form by a hand 
competent to furnish a standard history from the first germ, 
through every subsequent period of growth, to its full and 
final maturity. 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 135 

We now want the man, — Heaven grant that he may be 
raised up to us ! — who will buckle on the armour for this 
great work. Let no incompetent or imperfectly disciplined 
hand attempt it. It is a task not to be lightly undertaken. 
It is to be entered upon with no holyday or irreverent 
feeling. There must be an entire consecration to the office. 
The historian must be a ripe and good scholar, accomplished 
at all points by the most careful and exact training. He 
must live in the past, with all the lights of the present re- 
flected upon it. He must be a son of Massachusetts, to 
the question born, identified in feeling with every portion 
of her great story ; all of which must lie as a well-delineated 
chart in his mind. He must pierce through their garb and 
whatever is repulsive in their bearing, and gain a thorough 
insight into the character of the Puritans, — comprehend 
their great virtues, their lofty principles, their incontestable 
sacrifices. He must himself smack of the old stock, — have 
the sturdy root within him ; while, in his port and bearing, 
he gives evidence that the milder qualities and the refine- 
ments of life have been superinduced. He must under- 
stand the nature of the government here founded ; interpret 
its genius ; and find in the actual situation of our fathers, 
outcasts as it were from the Old World, but with rights 
as a Corporation giving them exclusive privileges, a justifica- 
tion of much that is put down to the score of intolerance 
and persecution. He must be able to show how, if they 
had been less rigid, the colony would have been overrun 
with adventurers, loose and profane persons ; deriding our 
ancestral peculiarities, exercising our elective franchise, with- 



136 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

out a stake in the country ; weakening public authority, and 
endangering the very existence of the colony. He must 
be able to trace, by the clearest deductions, the growth of 
free principles through peace and war, till the final and 
necessary result in the establishment of a well-balanced 
state ; and to this work, to which he should be moved by 
mighty forces from within, he must devote many of his 
best years, — his entire and vigorous powers. Nothing less 
can be demanded. The Commonwealth, the common mother 
of our peace and" joy, — with all her intellectual, moral, social, 
and industrial developments, — will be satisfied with no less. 
Descendants of the early Pilgrims of this valley ; citizens 
of Lancaster, a place eminently " fit for a plantation ; " men 
and women, wholly " meet for such a work," as part of the 
general weal, as well as individuals of the town, bearing a 
part in the institutions of the land ! you are called to great 
privileges, and have corresponding duties. You can look 
back upon a local history, not, indeed, marked with any 
great events or portentous changes, but quiet, well-ordered, 
and unpretending. The humble men who first took up 
their abode here, seem not to have been contentious to any 
extent, but generally harmonious and loving, — like one 
entire family in mutual dependence ; with no special range 
of thought or enlarged purpose, but seeking to establish 
themselves in those peaceful relations which they could not 
find at home. They were attached to the soil by the'ir daily 
labors, and to the soil they looked for their support, and the 
" enlargement of their outward estate ; " essaying what they 
could, in their circumscribed condition, to build up the church 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 137 

and school ; gradually increasing in numbers, and set down 
in larger sums in the rates, as their means widened out. They 
lived in comfort ; for the earth yielded a liberal increase, and 
the woods and streams furnished them out of their abund- 
ance. Here they toiled, enjoyed, and suffered in their daily 
round of duty, at a distance from the bustling world ; their 
territory seldom traversed save by some Groton, Concord, 
or Sudbury man, wending his way along the bridle path, 
piercing the forest and fording the stream, to visit some 
relative or friend, or ask some maiden in marriage, — or, 
ever and anon, a more hardy rider passing through, from the 
Bay to Connecticut, by the newly-discovered path, "which 
avoided much of the hilly way." A silence reigned all 
around the borders of the plantation, — the solemn silence 
of nature, — broken only by the music of the bird, or the 
howl of the wild beast. 

The blood of these men and women flows in the veins of 
many now present. May you emulate their industry ; prac- 
tise, if need be, their self-denial; remain content with the 
more agreeable lot that is yours, as they were content with 
theirs ; not despising their day of small things, their scanty 
learning, their limited means ; but endeavoring to build up, 
as they did, to venerate all the great purposes of social orga- 
nization, and to have regard to your Master-Rowlandsons, 
as they had to theirs. From these men have proceeded 
other generations, out of which have issued those who have 
done good service in their day, in the learned professions, 
and in civil and military office ; historians and poets ; men 
skilled in the useful arts ; women, with the attractions of 
18 



138 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

literature, of pleasant culture, of domestic refinement, — 
an intimate, ever-honored, distinguished portion of the social 
fabric. 

Your responsibilities are scarcely to be measured. They 
are not here or there. They reach all time and place, centres 
of ever-widening circles. They belong to the relations of 
private life in your own households, where the holiest influ- 
ences should abound, and be beautifully exemplified ; and 
out of which, in larger extent, should be touched the various 
connections binding man to society ; and through which 
should be inculcated, in the pregnant words of our State 
Constitution, " the principles of humanity and general bene- 
volence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, 
honesty and punctuality in dealings, sincerity, good humor, 
and all social affections and generous sentiments." As 
citizens, be known as those who, by their efforts and example, 
are ever ready to do good service to town and common- 
wealth, in all their great departments and interests ; remem- 
bering, that, however humble, every one has his own sphere 
of influence more or less extended, and that his obligation 
to unremitting, beneficial work is paramount while life 
lasts. As free, as men, be bold for the truth, never 
encouraging a false public sentiment, never yielding up 
your right of thought ; but consider it " a base abandonment 
of reason " to resign it, whether for sneers or threats, the 
opposition of the few or the many, the pomp and circumstance 
of public station, or any other factitious condition. While 
you gracefully yield to others their rights, never allow the 
utmost freedom of opinion, and the expression thereof, to 



AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 139 

be called in question by any man or body of men. If you 
permit individual opinion to be crushed, much more if you 
join in a blind crusade against it, remember your own danger. 
It may be convenient for you now to denounce ; but the time 
may come, — comes often, by universal experience, — when 
your position will be reversed, and you will need that support 
and protection which you have denied to others ; when the 
cold demeanor and the averted look will teach you your 
worse than folly in having failed to assert the right in your 
brother's emergent occasion. Bound together by one invisi- 
ble but enduring chain of dependence, having one duty and 
one community, let general harmony abound, with individual 
differences and peculiarities. 

As a people, we have had our misfortunes and adversities, 
suffering from poverty and straits, from oppression and vio- 
lence, all which have passed away. Long since, we have 
come out of clouds and thick darkness ; and now, in our clear 
sunshine, in the possession of national and individual wealth, 
acquired with a rapidity almost unexampled in the history of 
the world, we are to be still more sorely tried. 

In a common danger, when a common calamity is impend- 
ing, men band together and struggle against it, and come out 
from it with the great elements of their character strengthened 
and purified. But, in a time of abounding prosperity, men 
are apt to become hard, unsympathizing, selfish. This is 
our danger ; this the peculiar trial and temptation we are 
called upon to meet. Luxury and barbaric splendor are creep- 
ing in upon us with fearful power; intense love of the 
pleasures of sense, a diseased passion for excitement, homage 



140 CENTENNIAL ADDRESS. 

to money, low in its principle and degrading in its effects, are 
influencing us to an extent hitherto unknown ; while there 
is fear that the highest civilization, so called, is producing 
the lowest forms of Christian belief and practice, and sacri- 
ficing the life of our spiritual nature to a deadly materialism. 
Literature and art will not save a people ; for, while they 
may refine in some respects, they may become the handmaids 
of vice as well as of virtue, and be prostituted, as they have 
been prostituted, to the worst uses. 

Believing in progress, — believing that the world has made 
great progress, and that vast good has come along side by side 
with bad tendencies, — esteeming it a great privilege to live 
in the present age, with our wide social relations and indivi- 
dual rights, — let us bring up stern principle and undying 
faith to every encounter ; let them underlie the whole man : 
and then, however sharply we are tried by a prosperous, as 
our fathers were by an adverse condition, we shall, like them, 
gain the victory, and perpetuate what we now possess and 
enjoy ; then, if the thick cloud shall rise above our horizon, 
and spread upward, threatening night, blessed hope will rise 
still higher, and " play upon its edges," tinging them with 
its own brightness, and bringing the assurance of perfect 
day. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX. 



At a town-meeting of the citizens of Lancaster, held Nov. 29, 1852, 
it was unanimously voted, " That the town will commemorate the 
two-hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Lancaster, by 
holding a celebration of that event in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and fifty-three." 

At the same meeting, a general Committee of ten persons, in- 
cluding the three clergymen of the town, was appointed to carry 
out the purpose of the above vote. 

It was also voted, " That all the towns which formerly composed 
a part of Lancaster be invited to unite with us in the proposed 
celebration." 

The general Committee, after filling two vacancies made by 
resignation and adding several new members, consisted of the 
following persons : Rev. Charles Packard, Rev. Benjamin Whit- 
temore, Rev. George M. Bartol, William Townsend, John G. 
Thurston, Jacob Fisher, John M. Washburn, George Cummings, 
Calvin Carter, Henry Wilder, Charles L. Wilder, Anthony Lane, 
Matthew F. Woods, and John Thurston. 

John G. Thurston was appointed Chairman of the Committee ; 
and John M. Washburn, Secretary. 

In pursuance of the design, whose execution had been entrusted 
to them by the town, the Committee held numerous meetings, at 



144 



APPENDIX. 



some of which delegates from neighboring towns were, by invita- 
tion, present to co-operate. Sub-committees were appointed, and 
the following persons were chosen as officers of the day : — 

Rev. CHARLES PACKARD, President. 



Vice-Presidents. 



Rev. Benjamin Whittemore. 
George Cummings. 
John G. Thurston. 
Jacob Fisher. 
John M. Washburn. 
Anthony Lane. 
Charles Wyman. 



Henry "Wilder. 
Calvin Carter. 
Wilder S. Thurston. 
Charles Humphrey. 
Silas Thurston. 
Charles L. Wilder. 
Samuel W. Burbank. 



John G. Thurston. 
Jacob Fisher. 
George Cummlngs. 



Committee of Reception. 

Calvin Carter. 

Peter T. Homer. 

George R. M. Withington. 



Dr. John L. S. Thompson Chief Marshal. 



Assistant Marshals. 



G. F. Chandler. 
Stevens H. Turner. 
James Childs. 
Joel W. Phelps. 



G. W. Howe. 
Warren Davis. 
Charles J. Wilder. 



H. C. Kimball Toast-Master. 



The morning of Wednesday, June 15, rose clear and serene, and 
was ushered in by the ringing of bells and the booming of cannon. 
At an early hour, citizens from our own and neighboring towns, 
with those who had come from more remote distances, assembled 
at the Town House, to exchange greetings of welcome and con- 
gratulation. 

At about 10, a.m., a procession was formed, under the direction 
of the Marshal, of those desirous of attending the exercises to be 



APPENDIX. 145 

held at the meeting-house of the First Parish. The order of ser- 
vices in the church was as follows : — 

I. VOLUNTARY BY THE CHOIR. 



II. INVOCATION BY THE REV. GEORGE M. BARTOL. 



III. READING OP SCRIPTURES BY THE REV. GEORGE M. BARTOL. 



IV. PSALM LXXVIII. 

Let children hear the mighty deeds 
Which God performed of old ; 

Which in our younger years we saw, 
And which our fathers told. 

He bids us make his glories known, — 
His works of power and grace ; 

And we '11 convey his wonders down 
Through every rising race. 

Our lips shall tell them to our sons, 

And they again to theirs, 
That generations yet unborn 

May teach them to their heirs. 

Tims they shall learn, in God alone 
Their hope securely stands, 

That they may ne'er forget his works, 
But practise his commands. 



V. PRAYER BY THE REV. CHRISTOPHER T. THAYER, OF BEVERLY. 



VI. ODE BY MISS HANNAH P. GOULD, OF NEWBURYPORT. 

The dark forest frowned o'er the unopened sod ; 

The scene was a •wilderness howling, 
With trails where the wolf and the man-savage trod, 
Unknowing alike of their Maker and God ; 

And each for his •victim was prowling. 
Our anthems arise where the wild- wood air, 

Moaning, wailing, 
Hath shuddered (he war-whoop to bear ! 

19 



146 APPENDIX. 

Our forefathers cried to the King they adored, — 
" Jehovah our banner ! Jehovah ! " 

They bowed at his throne in a holy accord ; 

Then here bore for safety the ark of the Lord, 
The drear ocean-waste roaming over. 

Their harps, that had hushed on the willows hung, 
Sounded, joyful, 

Till Nature's grand temple-arch rung. 



Around their rude altar in trust as they kneeled, 

A guard of strong angels attending 
Spread o'er them, unseen, their bright wings, as a shield, 
Till darkness was chased by the Day-fount unsealed, 

With streams of a light never-ending. 
The desert was sweetened with Sharon's rose, 

Thornless, blooming, 
All fair and immortal that grows. 

Two Centuries now hath our Lancaster seen, 

And left not a cloud on her story : 
With eye clear and beaming, her brow is serene, 
Her footsteps direct, and majestic her mien, 

While passing from glory to glory. 
Her jewels unblemished will yet be shown, 

Shining, priceless, 
And numbered of God as his own ! 

But how for her day she hath acted her part, 
With "wisdom, and beauty, and fitness, — 

For culture of earth, of the mind, of the heart, 

For commerce and science, for letters and art, — 
Let heaven, earth, and sea, bear her witness 

Her children arise, and proclaim her blest: 
Onward, upward ! 

She points them for honor and rest. 

May she, when her aloe shall blossom anew, 

New beauties and powers be unfolding, 
With ever-fresh blessings, like spring-showers and dew ; 
And we, to whom earth must be then but review, 

The lilies unearthly beholding ; 
For circling to-day our old Home hearth-stone, 

Stronger, brighter 
Our ties where no parting is known ' 



APPENDIX. 147 



VII. ADDRESS BY JOSEPH WILLARD, ESQ. OF BOSTON. 



VIII. PRAYER BY THE REV. BENJAMIN WHITTEMORE. 



IX. PSALM CVII. 

Where nothing dwelt but beasts of prey, 
Or men as fierce and wild as they, 
God bids the opprest and poor repair, 
And builds them towns and cities there. 

They sow the fields, and trees they plant, 
Whose yearly fruit supplies their want : 
Their race grows up from fruitful stocks ; 
Then: wealth increases with their flocks. 

The righteous, with a joyful sense, 
Admire the works of Providence ; 
And wise observers still shall find 
The Lord is holy, just, and kind. 



X. BENEDICTION. 



The singing was performed with taste and spirit by a large choir 
of young ladies and gentlemen of Lancaster, under the lead of Mr. 
Osgood Collister. 

The church was tastefully decorated with evergreens and 
flowers. The names of the deceased ministers of Lancaster — 
Roweandson, Whiting, Gardner, Prentice, Harrington, 
Thayer — were fixed in evergreen upon the panels of the galle- 
ries, with the dates 1653 and 1853 on the east and west sides of 
the pulpit respectively, and the words " Christ and the Church " 
and " Welcome Home " on the gallery fronting the pulpit. 

At the close of the exercises in the church, a procession, arranged 
in the following order, was formed of those wishing to partake of 



148 APPENDIX. 

the public dinner, which was spread under a spacious tent in 
Chandler's Grove. 

ESCORT. 

The Committee of Arrangements. 

President of the day, and Vice-Presidents. 

Orator and Chaplains. 

Invited Guests. 

Adjoining Towns, in the Order of Seniority. 

Members of the New England Normal Institute. 

Citizens of Lancaster. 

With the sound of music, the waving of banners, and the echo- 
ing oi' cannon, the procession wound its way up Burial-ground Hill, 
and entered beneath the protecting shade of the venerable trees. 
An arched gateway, trimmed with evergreen, led into the grove ; 
aud the mottoes. " "Welcome Home," u Though long absent not for- 
gotten/' were placed near the entrance. 

About two thousand persons entered the tent to partake of the 
festivities of the dinner. The tables were bountifully spread with 
substantial comforts, and the hand of the ladies was apparent in 
the graceful trimmings that everywhere met the eye, bountifully 
furnished by the gardens and woods. Above the heads of the 
guests were suspended the words, a Here friends and brothers 
meet ; " " Here we venerate our lathers." 

On an elevated platform, in the midst of the large assembly, was 
seated the President of the day, with several of the Vice-Presidents 
aud invited guests on his right and left. The blessing was invoked 
by the Rev. Hubbard Wln'Slow, of Boston. 

The cloth having been removed, the following preliminary 
remarks were made by the Rev. Charles Packard. President 
of the day : — 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — The duty has devolved upon me to 
offer you, in behalf of the Committee of Arrangements, a few 
words of congratulation and of welcome. Tou are aware that 
the precise date of the incorporation of this town was (according 
to New Style) on the 2Sth of May last. The Committee deemed 



APPENDIX. 140 

it suitable, however, to defer the celebration to the 15th of June, 
that we might enjoy the propitious skies of summer, and that 
old Lancaster might present herself to her children upon her 
natal day in her most beautiful robes of green. And when, ladies 
and gentlemen, during the century now just closed in the history 
of this town, has a brighter or a more auspicious morning dawned 
upon us than this ? As we were awakened from our slumbers by 
the joyous song of the birds, the merry pealing of the bells, and 
the booming of the cannon, who of us could repress the tear of 
gratitude and the prayer of thanksgiving, to that benignant Provi- 
dence, whose gracious smiles have enabled the Lancaster of to-day 
to present such a brilliant contrast to the Lancaster of two hundred 
years ago ? 

It is an interesting feature in our celebration, that we" have the 
hearty co-operation of the neighboring towns whose territory was 
once included within the limits of this. The invitation extended 
to them by the Committee has been cordially responded to. "We 
welcome the large and respectable delegations now present from 
Harvard, Bolton, Leominster, Sterling, Boylston, and Clinton, 
whom we may appropriately call children of Lancaster, and also 
from our grand-children Berlin and West Boylston. Sentiments 
have been prepared, which, I trust, will call out the representatives 
of all these neighboring towns. 

I am happy, gentlemen and ladies, to recognize in this great 
assembly a number of distinguished persons, who, although not 
natives of this town, have acquired a strong interest in its welfare 
and history, by a residence among us as teachers or pupils, or in 
some other capacity. I hope soon to have the honor of introduc- 
ing to you some whose names have been identified in various 
departments of political and professional life, not only with the 
best interests of the old county of Worcester and the old Bay State, 
but of our National Union. Representatives are also present from 
some of our historical societies, who exhibit their devotion to the 
memories of the past, by improving the opportunity, that will not 
often occur to them in our newly settled country, of reviving the 
reminiscences of two hundred years. 



150 APPENDIX. 

Natives of Lancaster! allow me the privilege of welcoming 
you to the joyous scenes of this day. We rejoice to see such a 
noble company of the sons and daughters of this ancient town 
under this canopy to-day. You have looked forward to this occa- 
sion with joyous anticipations, and now we are permitted to greet 
you. You have come to us from various and widely distant por- 
tions of our extended republic. We welcome you to the scenes of 
your childhood, — to your native hills, — to the grand elm-trees 
under which you once sported, — to the sweetly flowing Nashua, 
upon whose banks you loved to wander in your boyish days ; and 
those familiar objects, the memory of which will never be obliter- 
ated by the lapse of time or the distance that may separate you 
from them. Your presence to-day in such large numbers, not only 
honors your native town, but honors also yourselves. It is a pledge 
to us, that the bustle and business of life, its distracting cares and 
anxieties, and the various experience through which you have 
passed, have not alienated your affections from the scenes of your 
early days. You can adopt, in regard to your native town, the 
language of the poet : 

" Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see, 
My heart untravelled fondly turns to thee." 

It is an interesting illustration of the enterprise of the old New- 
England towns, that, although Lancaster has never comprehended 
within its present limits a population of seventeen hundred persons, 
her sons and daughters may be found on the shores of the Pacific 
and in the extreme portions of the country. The pen of a daugh- 
ter of Lancaster, now an adopted daughter of the State of Florida, 
has composed a worthy poetical tribute of affection, which we shall 
soon have the privilege of presenting to you as a part of these 
exercises. 

The spot on which this pavilion stands has been the theatre of 

S ome of the interesting events that have been so appropriately 

alluded to by the orator of the day. As we passed along in the 

procession from the church, we could have discerned on the left 

hand (had not the railroad intervened) the site of the oldest 



APPENDIX. 151 

burying-ground, where not only "the rude forefathers of the hamlet 
sleep," but most of those early ministers of the town whose vener- 
able names we saw inscribed in wreaths of evergreen on the walls 
of the sanctuary. Still nearer the road, and on the brow of the hill 
on which the present burying-ground is located, was the site of 
the first meeting-house. Still farther west, on the right hand of the 
road, and where we saw a flag displayed, was the site of the house 
occupied by the Rev. Mr. Rowlandson, and which was burnt by the 
Indians in King Philip's war. As we came still farther along, we 
passed the mansion occupied for nearly a century by the Rev. Dr. 
Thayer, and his predecessor the Rev. Mr. Harrington. The elm- 
trees beneath whose shade this tent has been erected are upwards of 
a hundred and fifty years of age. They were the ornament of the 
second parsonage built in Lancaster, which stood within a few feet 
of us until within the recollection of some here present. The 
water which has quenched our thirst to-day has been drawn from 
the same well from which the venerable Prentice drank. On this 
spot, the Rev. Messrs. Gardner and Whiting were both slain, — the 
one by his own countrymen, who mistook him for an Indian ; the 
other in dreadful conflict with the savages themselves. The very 
ground upon which we now stand, therefore, is associated with the 
most interesting historical recollections, that it is the great design 
of these services to commemorate. 

But I feel, ladies and gentlemen, after the protracted services in 
which we have already participated, and especially as my humblex 
duty is simply to be the organ of the Committee of Arrangements ' 
in introducing others to your notice, that it ill becomes me to tres- ' 
pass any longer upon your attention. I, therefore, will conclude- j 
by offering to you, in behalf of the Committee, the following sen- B 
timent, which they have placed in my hands : — S 

" Lancaster, — a happy mother surrounded by noble children. ^ 
Her old heart rejoices in their prosperity, while the memories of ^ 
two hundred years come over her of the struggles she endured 
and the perils she encountered in defending her own young life,£n 
this day's greetings." 



152 APPENDIX. 

TOASTS. 

1. The First Settlers of Lax caster; — Hallowed be their memories ! Where 
they sowed in blood and tears, we reap in joy. 

2. The Early Ministers of Lancaster. They have toiled nobly, and entered 
into their rest. They were the Elijahs of the Past : may their mantles fall on the 
Elishas of the Present ! 

3. The Eev. Timothy Harrington. He appropriately noticed the close of 
Lancaster's first century : his descendants are now with ns to honor the close of 
the second. 

4. The Ret. Nathaniel Thayer, — affectionately remembered and deeply 
lamented. 

Remarks of the Rev. Edmund H. Sears, of Wayland: — 

Mr. President, — Tou have intimated to me that there is a pro- 
priety in my responding to these sentiments. I believe I am the 
only living ex-minister of Lancaster ; and I think I might go fur- 
ther, and say that I am the only ex-minister that Lancaster ever 
had, so far, at least, as the ancient parish is concerned. The only 
apparent exception that I can recollect is that of Father Rowland- 
son ; and he only left when his parish had ceased to exist, and deso- 
lation and solitude had overspread the town. But I shall not stand 
here to eulogize the old ministers of Lancaster. Their monuments 
are all around you, in the state of society, in the institutions, social, 
educational, and religious, which have come down to you shaped 
by their hands, and diffusing their blessed influences through this 
beautiful valley. I have studied the characters and the history of 
these good and venerable men, and have endeavored in some 
measure to imbibe their spirit and principles. Rowlandson, Whit- 
ing, Gardner, Prentice, Harrington, and Thayer, — it hardly 
becomes me to utter their praises after the full delineation of their 
characters which was given us by the orator this morning. Of 
this line of pastors, the only one, of course, whom I ever saw was 
Dr. Thayer; and I carry in my memory an impression of his 
venerable form and benignant countenance. Of the more ancient 
ones, though they wrote little which has come down to us, yet they 
were such men of mark that they appear to us through the haze of 
the past with enough of distinctness and individuality. I suppose 



APPENDIX. 



153 



our reverence for their memory does not require of us to adopt all 
their views and notions, without exercising a little discrimination. 
Father Prentice was a genuine Puritan ; and I seem to see him in 
all his severity of look, taste, and manners. But I think that none 
of us would care to be subjected to a church-discipline quite so 
stringent as his. Why, sir, he excommunicated a member of his 
church for criticizing one of his sermons. I am afraid, if ministers 
now should adopt such a rule of discipline as that, they would find, 
ere long, that they had not many church-members left to be excom- 
municated. Father Harrington, we are told, had softened a little 
the old theology and manners. I believe he was one of the best men 
that ever lived, and I cannot but admire his Christian suavity and 
benevolence. And yet it is somewhere stated in the records, that 
he claimed for himself to be equal to one half of his church. Yes, 
a little more than equal; for, when they had passed a vote, he 
claimed the right to veto it, and set it aside ; and that would make 
him a majority of the whole! I suppose, sir, you would not 
consider that very good Congregationalism. Then, again, some of 
these good old ministers had a way of showing their reverence for 
the sabbath, which we should hardly consider in these days entirely 
practical. I do not find how it was with the ministers of Lancaster, 
but a contemporary of Father Harrington, who preached in a neigh- 
boring town, and was pastor of the society to which it is my privi- 
lege now to minister, had notions on this subject which I think 
would rather more than satisfy the law of the Old Testament. 
Children who were born on Sunday he refused to baptize, for he 
said they broke the sabbath at their very birth. But it shows how 
much personal feeling has to do in shaping our opinions, that after- 
wards, when he had twin-children himself that were born on Sun- 
day, he found that it altered the case entirely ; and these and all 
past delinquents then had the privilege of the ordinance. Well, 
sir, we amuse ourselves with the peculiar notions of these good men, 
just as our children, I suppose, will amuse themselves with ours. 
But, when we come to the real substance and metal of which these 
men were made ; when I contemplate their devotion to the supreme 
and eternal law, before which they bowed in reverence, let kings 

20 



154 APPENDIX. 

and cabinets go as they would ; when I see the nearness of their 
approach to the dazzling throne of Jehovah, so that all outward 
distinctions vanished into nothing, that God might fill their whole 
vision, and become all in all ; when I see their serene faith in the 
midst of dangers such as we never knew, and their majestic patience 
under trials such as we never felt, — I forget all their peculiarities, 
and bow before their lofty and magnanimous virtues. 

I find it stated by the historian of Lancaster, that, among the 
regulations which the first settlers of the town adopted, there was 
one which excluded all heretics from settling among them. Heresy, 
you know, means schism, division ; and I will not undertake to say 
how much that regulation has had to do with the harmonizing 
influences that have always prevailed here. But, coming up hither 
on such a sweet June morning as we did to-day, and standing here 
with such prospects lying around us, I could not help thinking there 
were other influences which had done something in forming the 
characters of the people here ; something in producing that warm 
and genial sunshine of the heart for which they have always been 
known. I believe that the scenery with which our minds become 
familiar has not a little to do in our education ; and here nature, in 
her loveliest moods and sweetest aspects, is ever passing into your 
souls. I confess for myself, though not a native of Lancaster, that 
its quiet scenery has become so wrought and pictured in my 
memory, that I carry it along with me in life's journey, and live it 
over and over in hours of soothing meditation ; and it has the same 
influence with me as the reading of good books or the hearing of 
good sermons. Not to transgress the rule you have prescribed, I 
will close with giving you this sentiment : — 

" The People of Lancaster, — May their minds and hearts 
ever reflect the genial beauty and glory of the scenery amid which 
they live ! " 

The Eev. Christopher T. Thayer, of Beverly, also responded 
as follows : — 

Mr. President and Friends, — I say friends, because we are 
gathered now as a great family, all the members of which are — by 



APPENDIX. 155 

the impressive circumstances under which we are assembled ; by the 
very genius of the place ; by ancestral memories ; by early and ten- 
der associations ; by thoughts of present and of buried joys ; by 
cordial greetings of old companions, and revisiting the spot hallowed 
by the repose of kindred dust ; by common recollections, pleasures, 
griefs, hopes — brought into near and friendly relations. After the 
very interesting and felicitous response just made to the notices 
which have been taken of the former ministers, I feel that for me 
to attempt to add any thing to that would be as unnecessary as it 
would be delicate from my filial connection with one of them. This, 
however, I cannot forbear saying, from a full heart, that the honor 
which has this day been paid to a name which will ever be among 
the nearest and dearest to me has touched my deepest sensibility, 
and receives my most grateful acknowledgment. 

In the religious history of this town, its inhabitants, and all who 
are connected with it, may take a pride as well as gratification. It 
has been marked by reverence for religion and her institutions, 
purity and elevation of character, an enlightened and liberal spirit, 
and uncommon harmony of sentiment and feeling. Among my 
pleasantest early impressions is that of nearly the entire town, 
which then contained but one religious society, worshipping under 
yonder central dome, in which seemed fitly embodied by the hand 
of man the spirit of natural and moral beauty hovering over this 
charming vale. And though, with the changes in opinion that 
have taken place, a change may have come over this scene, yet I 
trust that the true harmony which is founded on sacred respect for 
the rights of conscience and humanity, to a good extent prevails 
and will ever reign here. 

The civil history of this ancient town has been alike creditable. 
It has been distinguished by regard for order, by respectable main- 
tenance of its local institutions, and by enlarged patriotism. I 
remember well how my youthful fancy kindled at the narratives 
I heard from the lips of some who had served in the old French 
wars, and of others of its citizens who had been soldiers in the war 
of our Revolution. So freely did the people contribute to carry on 
that great conflict, that when, after repeated and heavy demands 



156 APPENDIX. 

had been made on their resources, a new requisition for men and 
money came from the government, and the Whig leaders began to 
falter, a shrewd Tory stepped in, and turned the tables upon them 
by moving and carrying triumphantly a vote of all the supplies 
required. In the last war (may it ever be the last !) with our 
mother-country, what a noble band was that, — familiarly called the 
Silver-greys, composed of such as had passed the legal term of 
service, — which was here enrolled and finely disciplined, and held 
itself in constant readiness to go forth to the patriot's final duty, to 
conflict and death ! Many present will, with me, vividly remember 
it, — that venerable company of the silver-headed and grey-haired, 
of the ancient and honorable, — as it marched in our streets, and 
appeared on the field of review, — comprising, as it did, a large 
proportion of the leading citizens, and commanded by that true 
officer and Christian gentleman, Major Hiller, who had been asso- 
ciated with Washington in the Revolutionary contest, and shared 
extensively his confidence ; as a mark of which he was appointed 
first Collector, under the Federal Constitution, of the port of Salem 
and Beverly. 

Not only patriotism and religion, but the interests of good 
learning, have here, from the first, found friends and promoters. 
The learned professions have been worthily represented. A goodly 
number of the sons of Lancaster have enjoyed the advantages of a 
liberal education. Her daughters have not been without the mingled 
adornings of intelligence and refinement, while some of them have 
helped to enrich and advance our country's literature ; and two of 
them, as poetesses, have contributed liberally of their laurel wreaths 
to the delights of this occasion. They have shown, that, if denied 
a collegiate diploma, they could, by their own talents and applica- 
tion, procure for themselves a good degree. The common schools, 
a chief estate in our republican realm, have been fostered with great 
care, and have sustained a high rank. Of those who have here 
been teachers of youth, I might mention the names of Joseph 
Warren, the illustrious martyr of Bunker Hill; William Ellery 
Channing ; Jared Sparks ; and a host of others, some of whom we 
gladly recognize in this assembly, who have been eminent in various 



APPENDIX. 157 

walks of life. And there were pupils not unworthy of such teach- 
ers. Just to allude to a few that readily occur to me, as having 
been my early associates and friends, — there were Rufus Dawes, 
whose poetic muse found a fitting theme in the valley of the 
Nashua, where it was nursed, and which it loved so well; Horatio 
Greenough, a pride of our land, and of world-wide fame, whose 
genius was scarcely less manifest when in boyhood he carved in 
snow and wood, than afterward, when he immortalized himself in 
marble ; Henry R. Cleveland, who, though departing all too soon 
for the world if not for himself, has left a delightful moral image 
for us to cherish, and some of the most exquisite literary produc- 
tions ; Frederick Wilder, bearing in person and mind the stamp of 
nature's nobility, than whom Harvard University rarely if ever 
sent forth a more promising son, and whose early death learning, 
virtue, and friendship alike and deeply deplored. 

If the train of my remarks should seem to have partaken too 
much of the personal and local, something must be pardoned to the 
spirit of the place and the time, especially to the sentiment which 
clings to the spot where we first drew our breath, and which is 
invested with the ever-fresh hues of life's bright and rosy morn ; 
and under the magnetic power of which we are drawn irresistibly 
back to the spring-time of our being, and bathe anew in the dews of 
our youth. As Sheridan Knowles beautifully says : 

" Howe'er it changes with us on life's road, 
The sunny start all intervals breaks through, 
And warms us with the olden mood again." 

Or as Cowper, with more graphical description, has said : 

" We love the play -place of our early days; 
The scene is touching; and the heart is stone 
That feels not at that sight, and feels at none. 
The wall on which we tried our graving skill, 
The very name we carved subsisting still ; 
The bench on which we sat while deep employed, 
Though mangled, hacked, and hewed, not yet destroyed; 
The little ones, unbuttoned, glowing hot, 
Playing our games, and on the very spot, 
As happy as we once." 



1*> S APPENDIX. 

There is indeed an attachment to early scenes, and the home 
which gave us birth, which, whatever may be the distance of space 
or time from which we come back to them, makes us feel ready, as 
I confess I do now, to fall down and embrace the very soil on which 
we tread. Xot a few that I see before me will, I know, participate 
in this feeling. All present, will, I am sure, concur in the senti- 
ment, the fulfilment of which, though we shall not be here at the 
end of another hundred years to witness, it does our hearts good to 
anticipate ; and in which I include, with the parent, all her offspring 
towns, so happily gathered by their representatives at this hospi- 
tal de and wide-spread board: — 

•• The History of Lancaster's past two Centuries affords 
bright omens for that on which she now enters." 



5. Our eldest Daughter, Harvard ; — we feel in her a vital interest as she 
lies close to the stream that flows through our heart. But she set the example of 
clipping our wings, so that, if we are not a shire, we are a sheared town. 

This toast was responded to by the Rev. Dr. Aloxzo Hill, of 

"Worcester, who is a native of that place. 

Dr. Hill said that he had come from the small village of Quin- 
sigamund, at the foot of the Bogachoag in the xsipmuc country, to 
greet his friends, the Xashaways. But, Mr. President, ladies, and 
gentlemen, since I have arrived here, I have found myself standing 
on my own soil, in the midst of my kindred and townsfolks, who 
desire me to say a word for old Harvard. This I most cheerfully 
do ; for I never hear her named, or look upon her green hills, but 
my heart beats a little quicker, and my tongue is unloosed. 

In the sentiment which has been read, you have been pleased to 
speak of her as your oldest daughter. It is indeed true ; she is 
your oldest daughter, — the first of your family whom you set up ; 
and we thank you for the rich and noble dower which you bestowed, 
when you sent her from her ancient home. For, I declare to you, 
sir, I know of no spot on this earth fairer, or that overlooks a more 



APPENDIX. 159 

charming landscape, than yonder eminence, which once was yours. 
I stand upon it on a beautiful summer's morning like this ; and 
where can the eye enjoy a wider sweep or a more entrancing spec- 
tacle? Turning west, it looks clown upon these rich intervals, 
waving in the summer's breeze, — studded with their ancient elms, 
clustering villages, and spires of churches, and traced with the wind- 
ing waters of the Nashua. Then rising and passing over a succes- 
sion of pleasant farmhouses, it is arrested by the woody summit 
of our own Wachusett ; while, turning a little to the north, it rests 
upon the rocky peaks of the Grand Monadnock and the Green 
Mountains. We thank you for your ample dowry, when you sent 
us from the shelter of your wing. 

Since we have left you, Mr. President, we have done but little to 
gain for us a name in the world. "We are an agricultural people, 
and have pursued the even tenor of our ways ; and yet we have 
not been without a share of the men whom we love to call to 
remembrance. There is a long line of clergymen who preached 
to the town, — a body of men at least as respectable as you will 
find anywhere, — some of them worthy of an everlasting memorial 
in the hearts of this people. There is Seccomb, the first minister, 
settled a hundred and twenty years ago, — a man of education 
and humor, — who wrote a witty poem famous in its day, — and 
who, being told by his father-in-law that he would furnish as large 
a house as he would build, reared that palace which still stands 
with its long avenues of elms overlooking our beautiful little lake, 
the ornament of the town. There is Wheeler, afterwards Register 
of Probate for the County, whose numerous and highly respectable 
descendants are spread over its central towns. There is Johnson, 
the youthful patriot, who, when the sounds of battle reached him 
from the plains of Lexington, seized his musket, and marched to 
Cambridge ; and there on its Common, still fresh with the blood of 
the slain, he stood, as the old people remember, with his hat hung 
upon his bayonet, and offered a prayer in presence of the Continen- 
tal Army which thrilled all hearts, and then laid down hi.s young 
life, — the early victim of disease, — one of the earliest offerings 
on the altar of freedom. And there were Grosvener, Emerson. 



160 APPENDIX. 

and Bemis, — names all familiar and some grown famous through 
their descendants. 

Of civilians we cannot boast. "We have had no man of mark, — 
of civil or political eminence. But we have had our citizens, who, 
in their day and place, did good service to the Commonwealth. 
We had our man at the light of Lovel's Pond, so celebrated 
in early New-England ballads, and at the massacre of Fort William 
Henry, so disastrous to New-England's sons. "We had our man 
in the train of Arnold, in his desperate march through the 
wilderness to Canada. "We had our man with Wolfe on that 
night when he scaled the Heights of Abraham, — who stood by 
his side in the next day's battle, and remembered the serene 
countenance, and the long locks which hung upon his shoulders, of 
which tradition has so often spoken. "We had our man to guard 
the prison of Andre and the tent of Washington. And we had 
our scores of men in each division of the army, and in almost every 
battle, of the Revolution. 

But, sir, we must not indulge in these reminiscences. They are 
of the past ; but we may be pardoned in dwelling upon them for a 
few moments, for the present time has not been favorable to us. 
"We have but lightly shared in the prosperity which has enriched 
our neighbors around. We have but little to tempt the young 
people to remain on the old homestead. Beautiful as our village 
is, we have found it too narrow for our wishes ; and we have gone 
out into every quarter of the globe, and have obtained a home in 
almost every city of the Union. But, wherever we have gone, we 
have retained pleasing recollections of our native village : its quiet 
fields and healthful breezes give a fresh impulse to our blood, 
whenever we think of them. We love its Green, where the church 
and the school-house have for a century stood. "We venerate the 
graves where the fathers lie. We delight to honor, with her chil- 
dren, the common parent of us all. I give you, therefore, as a 
sentiment, — 

" The Family Elm, — still green and fresh, and affording a 
hospitable shade, while its shoots have been transplanted into 
every soil." 



APPENDIX. 161 

6. Our second Daughter, ever attached to our eldest, quickly followed her ex- 
ample, and bolted. As success has attended her, we say Bolt-on. 

The following remarks were made by the Rev. Richard S. 
Edes, in response to the toast complimentary to Bolton : — 

It is not right or proper, Mr. Chairman, that the second daugh- 
ter of this venerable mother of several children should be indiffer- 
ent to the maternal joy. Having, with her sisters, older ami 
younger, once more participated in the hospitalities and memories 
of the old home, and with them bolted, Yankee fashion, the excel- 
lent repast provided by the old lady's affection, and enjoyed, too, 
" the feast of reason and the flow of soul," with which it has been 
accompanied, she feels that she should not repress the kindly ami 
filial sentiments which she experiences, or put the bolt on their 
expression. While, with mingled emotions, she lingers, with her 
parent, on the sometimes tender, sometimes stirring memories and 
associations of the past, she would heartily congratulate her mother 
Lancaster on her vigorous and healthful condition ; and that, not- 
withstanding the cares she has had with so large a family, and all 
the trials and hardships she has gone through, she is far from show- 
ing any sign of decrepitude and old age. 

Though the daughters no longer find their home beneath the 
parental roof, but, like genuine, enterprising Yankee girls as they 
are, have gone forth, relying on themselves, but trusting, too, in a 
Higher Power, each one to seek, ay, and make her own fortune, 
they are still far from being coldly alienated from her whose foster- 
ing hand cherished their early years. By means of " the plough, 
the loom, and the anvil," they still minister, as dutiful children 
should, to her comfort, and, clustering around her, feel a common 
interest in all that conduces to her happiness and prosperity. 
Though Lancaster is, most assuredly, looked down upon by most of 
her children, it is, I am confident, with feelings very different from 
those of contempt or disregard. Of the living streams of health and 
plenty which circulate through their own hearts they pour largely 
into her bosom ; and, reverentially rising up around her, and stand- 
ing while she sits, each daughter pronounces the mother bl< - 

21 



1 62 APPENDIX. 

Ever fresh from the renewing hand of God, preserving largely 
something of the beautiful simplicity of more primitive times, un- 
contaminated by evil customs which a false refinement and luxury 
are apt to bring in, ever alive with all genial sympathies, and for- 
ward in the career of improvement, may our dear mother live a 
thousand years, and a thousand years after that ; having all along, 
in the future as in the past, a history on which she may dwell with 
honest pride ! And never, while these graceful elms wave in the 
summer breeze, or toss their naked arms to the blasts of winter, 
while the Nashua flows, and Wattoquottoc and Wachusett stand 
sentinels around, may the family ties of interest and affection be 
sundered ; never may the happy copartnership of mother and 
daughters cease, while the continent stands, or the world revolves ! 



7. Leominster ; — a favored branch of our family — ever right at heart ; afford- 
ing strong evidence in favor of Phrenology, as she has flourished abundantly by 
attending to Combe's Philosophy. 

The Hon. David Wilder, of Leominster, responded : — 

Mr. President, — "We have come down here to-day to unite 
with the other branches of a numerous and happy family, in offer- 
ing to the kind " Mother of us all " our hearty congratulations, on 
account of the great age to which she has attained, and the good 
health, prosperity, and happiness which she continues to enjoy. 

Those of us who live on what was the Northern half of the 
" New Grant," now the town referred to in the complimentary 
toast which has just been read, beg leave to tender to her our 
sincere thanks for the many favors which she has conferred upon 
us from our youthful days to the present time. And we rejoice 
that, during the whole time, there has never been any " falling out 
by the way," — never any unkind feelings between the parent 
and the third daughter. We feel truly grateful to her for that ar- 
rangement commenced in 1701, under which our lands were honor- 
ably purchased of the original occupants, — honestly paid for, — 
and as good a title thereto obtained as it was in the power of those 



APPENDIX. 163 

occupants to give. That whole arrangement was wise and judi- 
cious, and contributed very materially to the peace and success of 
the first settlers and their successors. But few of the original 
proprietors went themselves to reside there ; but they sent their chil- 
dren by the half dozen or more from some of their large families ; 
and for the most part they were men of strong minds, industri- 
ous habits, and well fitted to make a good cause prosper. They 
were, moreover, conscientious and religious men, and early adopted 
measures for the erection of a meeting-house, and the settlement 
of a " godly minister." In a little more than three years after the 
town was incorporated, Mr. John Rogers, a lineal descendant from 
the martyr of that name, was ordained as the pastor of the church. 
The solemn charge on that occasion was given by the Rev. Mr. 
Prentice, then the aged minister of Lancaster. And if the inhab- 
itants of Leominster have been even generally " right at heart," 
it may have been owing to the fact that they have never been but 
few months, comparatively, without a regularly ordained minister 
to show them " the way." 

For many years they were mostly agriculturists, and could not 
devote much of their time to reading. The works of Gall and 
Spurzheim were not to be found in their libraries. They took 
pretty good care of their own heads, but did not trouble themselves 
much with regard to any peculiar " bumps," or other things, that 
might be on the heads of their neighbors. Previously to 1770, they 
knew nothing of phrenology. But about that time Obadiah from 
among the Hills (whether he was a prophet or not, I cannot tell) 
introduced " Combe's Philosophy" In other words, he, and some 
others who had come from old Newbury, commenced the making 
of combs. There are now about four hundred hands employed in 
the business. It has been a source of wealth to the town, and of 
profit to many of those engaged in it. And among the successful 
is one of Lancaster's own native sons, a lineal descendant from the 
Rev. Mr. Carter, the first minister of the good old town of Woburn. 

But the inhabitants of Leominster have not confined themselves 
wholly to " Combe's " work. Fourdrinier has attracted their atten- 
tion. And, even while I have been speaking, there has probably 



1G4 APPENDIX. 

been turned off in Crehore's mill a sufficient quantity of paper for 
each individual in this vast assembly to write a letter on to his 
friend. 

Music, too, has occupied their attention ; and with so great 
facility are the different parts of certain musical instruments manu- 
factured there, that in a very short time every lady in town might 
be supplied. 

It does not, however, become me to occupy much of your time, 
otherwise I could refer to many act- of kindness that have existed 
between the parent and the child. But I forbear. 

In return for the highly complimentary toast that has been given, 
I beg leave to offer the following : — 

*■ Tin: Ancient Town of Lancaster. Her territory may 
be set off on the east and on the west, — on the north and on the 
south. But so long as the ' Old Common. — the Xeck and the 
North Tillage. — Quassaponiken and Walnut Swamp, — George 
Hill and New Boston' remain, so long she will continue to be 
' Old Lancaster,' respected and beloved by all the descendants of her 
third daughter." 



S. Chocksett, — the homely maiden-naine of one fair daughter. Her change of 
name was desirable, and every thing now within her limits bears evidence of Sterling 
worth. 

The Rev. Mo^es G. Thomas, of New Bedford. Mass., replied 
as follows : — 

Mi-. President. — The very tact which you have named, that I 
am a native of Sterling, may lead you to repent of calling me out 
on this occasion ; for natives and salvages were, with our fathers, 
synonymous terms. Besides. I am not a hundred years old. I have 
no centennial experiences. If. sir, you will let me be a " looker-on 
in Venice " this time, and take the trouble to look me up on your 
next centennial anniversary, I may perhaps do as well as others. 

Yet there are reasons which ought to give me a peculiar interest 
in your celebration. The blood of two of the ancient names 



APPENDIX. 165 

recorded on the walls of your church to-day, together with that of 
the first minister of Sterling, now flows in the veins of my family. 
A daughter of your venerable Prentice became the wife of the llev. 
Mr. Mellen, the first minister of Sterling ; and from that union, in 
the second generation, sprang my " better half," as we are taught 
to say ; and the blood of your second minister, the honored Whit- 
ing, through my mother, now flows in my own veins. 

But, Mr. President, you spoke of Sterling as a daughter of Lan- 
caster. I am disposed to demur to the appellation. Sterling has 
ever seemed to me more like an overgrown and somewhat rebellious 
son ; and was it not owing to this spirit that she became a separate 
town ? The good people of Chocksett had long felt that they were 
too heavily taxed for the support of the many bridges over your 
beautiful rivers, and the paupers belonging to this more ancient part 
of the settlement, and that at the same time they had received but a 
small share in the honors and emoluments of office. In the neigh- 
borhood of 1776, you know, sir, that taxation without representation 
was not much in favor. Under these circumstances, on $xq recur- 
rence of a town-meeting, the people of Chocksett summoned to the 
ballot-box all who could legally vote, and appropriated to them- 
selves the lion's share. They took to themselves all the offices, 
emoluments, and honors of the town. They removed all the public 
offices and records far up under the shadow of "Wachusett. They 
summoned future town-meetings there, and Lancaster began to find 
she wasn't anywhere. She accordingly concluded, like one of old, 
to " let the people go ; " and Sterling was incorporated in April, 
1781. 

The prime minister, I mean, Mr. President, the first Christian 
teacher, in Sterling, seems to have shared the independent spirit of 
the people. He was one to whom the often-quoted line of Horace 
was peculiarly applicable, — 

" Justum et tenacem propositi virum." 

Nothing could turn him from his sense of justice or his purpose, 
and his spirit entered largely into the early ecclesiastical history 
of the town. 



166 APPENDIX. 

The good people of Bolton, one of the offshoots of Lancaster, 
had passed through a long controversy with their minister, which 
councils had failed to adjust. The parish had finally taken the case 
into their own hands, as beyond help from councils, and thrown 
their minister overboard, without " benefit of clergy." The neigh- 
boring clergy, regarding this as a high-handed offence on the 
part of the laity, assembled a large and respectable council, and 
laid the entire church of Bolton under a ban of excommunication, 
until confession and repentance. In this state of affairs, six of the 
excommunicated brethren, resolving to test their right to Christian 
ordinances, presented themselves at the communion-table in Ster- 
ling, under the ministration of Mr. Mellen. Observing their 
presence, he refused to administer the rite until they should with- 
draw. The question was now fairly open between laity and clergy, 
and Mr. Mellen's own church voted that the Bolton excommunicates 
should not withdraw. The contest grew high, even over the sacred 
memorials of Jesus. At length, the good minister, wishing to avoid 
actual violence, and perhaps remembering the lines of the poet, — 

" He that fights, and runs away, 
May live to fight another day," 

left the church. Of course, the obnoxious brethren were de- 
feated. 

As is usual on such occasions, although the pastor gained his 
point, he lost his parish. A division in the parish followed. A 
large and respectable council was convened, and decided in Mr. 
Mellen's favor ; but a bare majority of the church and society 
refused to submit, ignored the decision of the council, and turned 
away their minister. After continuing to preach eight or ten 
years to the faithful few who adhered to him, in his own house and 
in a school-house, he received a call at Hanover, Mass., and 
removed from Sterling. But though we see a good deal of inde- 
pendence, both on the part of clergy and laity, in the early history 
of Chocksett, yet, since these early strifes, the good people of Ster- 
ling have reposed as peaceably among their neighbors as have the 
quiet waters of the Washacum ponds among their hills. 



APPENDIX. lf',7 

But, Mr. President, dear to me as is my native Sterling, I also 
love old Lancaster. It is fondly associated with cherished memo- 
ries of my boyhood. My father's farm lay on the southern declivity 
of Redstone Hill ; and, when the freshets had swollen your streams 
and covered your intervales, I used to lie upon the fresh green 
grass in the door-yard, and watch the shimmering of the sunlight 
upon what to me seemed your boundless waters. 

Almost all my school-days were spent in dear old Lancaster. I 
have angled along your river, listening to the wild notes of the 
blackbird and the robin, the planting-bird and the merry bobolink. 
Indeed, I seldom look upon your beautiful river to this day, but it 
recalls to my mind those lines of Smollett, in his " Ode to Leven 
Water," — 

" Pure stream! in whose transparent wave 
My youthful limhs I wont to lave, 
No torrents stain thy limpid source, 
No rocks impede thy dimpling course." 

In winter, too, on the skater's ringing steel, we coursed your 
stream, gathering drift-wood for the burning pile, around which we 
whooped and hallooed like the sons of red royalty of yore. Our 
early teachers too, — Sparks, Emerson, Miles, — oh I do I not 
remember them ? I especially bear in mind the admirable Emer- 
son, because it was my good fortune to be longer a pupil of his 
than of either of the others ; and, among our school-mates,, the 
Greenoughs (Horatio the sculptor, and Henry), the Tyngs, the 
Chandlers, the Thayers, the Cleveland;, the Higginsons, and more 
than we can pause to mention now. 

But for your ten minutes' rule, so necessary under the circum- 
stances, I could scarce forbear to speak of the native female poets 
of Lancaster, whose contributions are among the gems of this 
occasion. But I cheerfully give place to others, with a sentiment 
of united regard for both Sterling and Lancaster : — 

■ sterling, — full-grown and manly now. — yes, too manly to 
forget the good old mother." 



APPB3TD1X. 

9. Botlstox took to herself Shrewsbury's leg, and ran away from her mother. 
But her industry and many virtues have done honor to herself and her pari: 
!: here, and can speak for herself. 

Remarks of James Davenport. E- . 

We, who constitute the family of the fifth daughter of our good 
mother Lancaster, in having her permission to u speak for our- 
selves" at this great family gathering, respond. Since I 
Lancaster, then a Hid . has become, not a thousand only, but 

more than fifteen thousand. So many reminiscences of olden time 
crowd themselves into my mind at this moment, that I can only touch 
upon one or two of them. Lancaster, as it was in 177'J. was the 
place of my nativity, and there I have spent six - of my life. 

My ancestors came here in 17-30 ; and some of them still occupy 
part of a tract of land granted to Richard Davenport, sometimes in 
history called the " Commander," who came to this country with 
.nor Endicott in 102S. This tract consisted of six hundred 
and fifty acres, granted by the - Great and General Court," and 
surveyed by John Prescott and Jonas Fairbank : part of the pi 
occupants are the seventh generation. 

xeard of the intention of Lancaster to celebrate this 
two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, I have 
felt a deep interest in the subject. I am called upon to respond to 
a sentiment ofiered by the committee of the parent town, which is 
somewhat equivocal in its character, the latter clause being highly 
complimentary ; but our 'virtues seemed to be cast somewhat into 
-aade, when the first clause charges us with having taken 

N ." and ran away from our mother. We plead 

** not guilty " to the charge of taking the leg : true it is. we ran away 
from our mother, but ran upon our own legs, upon which w< 
stand; but we send the charge of U v ewsbunjs leg back 

upon our mother ; for records show that she h». . 
which was 'S before we had a legal existence, which 

was not till 1786. In this instance, our good old mother, hike some 
other mothers, seems inclined to charge her own mistakes upon her 
family ; but we excuse her at this superannuated time of Lie. being 
this day two hundred years of age : we, being a hundred and thirty- 



APPENDIX. L69 

three years her junior, would not be guilty of disrespect to her, or 
of filial disobedience. The wonder is, that, after setting out so 
many daughters, and giving each of them a handsome slice of her 
territory, she should still have left to herself this beautiful plain, 
and, under these noble elms, should have a home in which to receive 
and entertain this large family of descendants. Here is truly a 
family meeting, upon holy ground, for it has been moistened with 
the blood of the pioneers ; — a meeting, with which a stranger inter- 
meddleth not. We are assembled with the descendants of the 
Prescotts, the Wilders, the Haughtons, the Fairbankses, the Saw- 
yers, the Joslins, the Moores, and others, whose lathers and 
mothers converted a wilderness into a "fruitful field," and caused 
the "desert to blossom as the rose." We would not leave this 
ground till we feel our fraternal and filial graces strengthened and 
hallowed by the reminiscences of the occasion; and we, male 
descendants of the pioneers, would not forget, on this interesting 
and never-to-be-repeated anniversary, woman, the help-meet pioneer 
of our fathers, the " last, best gift of Heaven to man." By her 
assistance was Lancaster made what we see it to-day; by her 
taste and her fingers was yonder church so beautifully orna- 
mented ; and without her, without woman, we have no right to say, 
that Lancaster would at this day be known ; for without her, 
without Isabella, can we say that America would have been dis- 
covered, and Columbus have given a new world to the kingdoms of 
Castile and Leon ? I have spoken of woman by her proper name, 
— the name her Creator gave to her at her creation. God made 
woman in the beginning. He did not make ladies : they are made 
by milliners. And, if she has not all her rights, I trust the present 
Constitutional Convention will employ their wisdom in the investi- 
gation of them, and adoption of them into the new Constitution. 

The fifth daughter now closes what she has time to offer on this 
occasion, by a prayer, that, as the two branches of the Nash- 
away, which flowed separately all the way from Ashburnham on 
the north and Holden on the south, at different distances, till they 
arrived at Lancaster, did not leave the place till they had united 
into one, and flowed placidly together towards the Merrimack in an 

22 



170 



MTENDIX. 



unbroken union ; so may this meeting have the effect to cement the 
good feelings of this great family, till the Nashaway shall cease to 
flow. 



10. Our youngest Daughter, Clinton. Like some other daughters, she was 
tired of being tied to her mother's apron-strings : she therefore bought her time, and 
set up for herself. Although she has the pride of youth, she is industrious, and, like 
the mothers of old, is not ashamed to spin and weave. 

This sentiment was responded to by Horatio N. Bigelow, Esq. 

Mr. President, — It is with peculiar embarrassment that I rise 
to respond to the sentiment just offered ; as you are aware, sir, I am 
more accustomed to spinning yarns for cloths than public speeches. 
Moreover, the extreme youth of Clinton should entitle her to a place 
at this board as a silent guest ; but it is an old saying that the 
youngest is the pet of the family, and in great danger of being 
spoiled by indulgence, and such, I fear, may be the fate of Clinton 
on the present occasion. 

It is but right and honorable, sir, that Clinton, the youngest child 
of this numerous family of towns, should (by the largest delega- 
tion of them all) manifest a warmth of filial love and affection 
around this festive board, that no other members of the family may 
feel ; for it is now but a few days more than three years since we 
were of the same household ; and what child, when he has once 
for all time left the parental roof, remembers the little bickerings 
of childhood, or ever forgets the endearing associations of home, 
which have grown with his growth, and strengthened with his 
strength ? It is therefore a peculiar interest that we feel in coming 
around this table to unite with our elder sisters in celebrating the 
two hundredth anniversary of our parent town. 

Clinton is that territory known for many years after the towns 
of Sterling, Boylston, West Boylston, and Berlin were incorporated, 
as the South Village of Lancaster. It was in this village, upon 
South Meadow Brook, that the old Prescott mill stood. It is 
there that the Prescott. mills of 1853 stand, with kindred estab- 



APPENDIX. 171 

r 

lishments around. It was there that the red man delighted to 
hunt and fish. It was there, amongst the red men, that John 
Prescott located himself, and ground corn for the region round 
about ; followed in turn by the Sawyers, the Rices, the Burdetts, 
the Lows, and the Harrises. 

The power of the little stream referred to has been used for the 
purposes of propelling mills for more than one hundred years ; as 
(if no other evidence was at hand) a stone monument recently 
found indicates the fact, by its marks, that John Prescott there lived, 
and owned large tracts of land, as early as 1667. 

In 1812, Poignand and Plant, early pioneers in the cotton- 
manufacture, commenced their works, and continued in a pros- 
perous business until 1835 ; when these, having become old, were 
sold into other hands. The sale attracted to the time-honored 
spot the attention of other youthful adventurers in the manufac- 
turing business, who obtained control of the place, and com- 
menced their operations in the spring of 1838 ; the population of 
what is now Clinton being, at that time, not far from two hundred. 

With the establishment of new works commenced the rapid 
increase of population of the South Village, and with the increase 
of population came new wants and requirements ; new roads, 
bridges, and schools were called for ; the rapid increase of popula- 
tion made the demands imperative, — so much so, that the old 
settlers began to have some fears as to what the result was to be ; 
the wants of a concentrated manufacturing population being so 
v different from those of an agricultural community, that the demands 
of the South Village were thought hard. The farmer did not 
wish to pay his highway tax in money, any more than the manu- 
facturer wanted to work his out upon the highway. The political 
power of the South Village beginning to show itself, it became 
apparent to many that some change in the management of town 
affairs must take place. Consequently, the people of Clintonville 
(for that was the name adopted by the village) petitioned the mother- 
town to be set off as a separate town, and receive their inheritance ; 
but the old town replied, " We cannot let you go ; we have nursed 
you and brought you up at great expense ; we cannot consent." 



172 APPENDIX. 

Many objections were raised; amongst others, were the expensive 
bridges, roads, and a town debt; but all could not satisfy the 
people of Clintonville. They perseveringly pressed their claims ; 
and, although entertaining the highest regard for the old town, 
felt that something must be done, and, if possible, in a manner not 
to break friendship with the mother-town. They therefore re- 
sorted to the expedient, referred to in the sentiment, of offering to 
buy their time. This was considered generous. This touched 
the noble heart of the old settlers of the town. They said, "If they 
are thus in earnest, we must consent. We will meet them, and 
make an arrangement." And accordingly a meeting was held. 

It was then agreed, that, in consideration of the large number of 
bridges and great length of road that would be left to Lancaster, 
she should retain all the town-property, and that Clinton should 
pay her ten thousand dollars. In consideration of which, it was also 
agreed that the old town of Lancaster should not appear before 
the Legislative Committee to oppose the granting of the prayer of 
the people of Clinton for an act incorporating them as a separate 
town within the limits agreed upon, which embraced about five 
thousand acres of the twenty-five thousand then remaining to the 
town of Lancaster. Thus you will see, Mr. President, that the 
good old mother did not bestow upon Clinton the fair inheri- 
tance in lands which she had done upon her elder children ; and, 
when our elder sister Harvard boasts here to-day of her beautiful 
possessions of hills and valleys, we have nothing to show in com- 
parison but sandy plains, a large debt, and tolerable water-power. 
But, sir, Clinton does not complain ; for all this was a mat- 
ter of mutual agreement, and Clinton has faithfully fulfilled her 
part of it. 

Having thus, Mr. President, bought our time, and cut loose from 
the old lady's apron-strings, we have gone on our way rejoicing, 
increasing our manufactures, until we now produce ginghams, 
quilts, coach-laces, carpets, machinery, machine castings, combs, 
hay-forks, carpet bags, and many other small wares ; the aggregate 
amount of all our manufactures being annually more than two 
millions of dollars, — our population, in the mean time, having 



APPENDIX. 173 

attained to about 3,500. With these means of thrift, Mr. President, 
Clinton hopes to spin, weave, hammer, and pitch herself out of del if. 

Clinton, sir, amid all her business cares, has not forgotten the 
good example of her good old mother, but has established her 
churches, built her school-houses, and provided good ministers 
and school-teachers, — so that all her people may assemble and 
listen to instruction from the word of God; and her children may 
early learn wbat is taught in our public schools, believing, with the 
mother-town, that in the morality and general intelligence of the 
people rests the security of our free institutions. She has estab- 
lished a large library, and maintains public lectures during the lec- 
ture season. She has provided a rural cemetery, ample for the final 
resting-place of all her citizens. She provides liberally for the poor 
within her borders. In short, Mr. President, the prosperity of the 
child has been all that the mother had a right to expect. 

In conclusion, permit me to say to our good old mother Lan- 
caster, we are happy to be with you at this family gathering to- 
day. We rejoice, that, while you have contributed largely of your 
territory on the north, south, east, and west, to form new towns, 
you still enjoy the enviable position of one of the most beautiful 
townships of land in the good old county of Worcester. You sit 
as a princess upon her throne, proudly looking out upon all her 
children ; and, so long as there shall be a sun in the heavens, may 
old Lancaster be, what she is to-day, the pride of all her children ! 

Allow me, sir, in conclusion, to propose to you this senti- 
ment: — 

" Lancaster, — the honored parent of many sons and daugh- 
ters. May she ever be blessed in her children, and may none of 
them be left to disgrace her fair name ! " 



A native resident, in behalf of the mother, made the following 

reply to her several daughters : — 

Mr. President, — Our youngest daughter, Clinton, has stated, 
that, instead of giving her a dower, we gave her a debt; a. remark 



174 APPENDIX. 

which seems to me to need an explanation, lest it may lead this 
audience to believe that she was not fairly treated. I think, sir, 
that, when the facts in the case are fairly represented, we shall be 
justified in the course we took when she made known her desire to 
leave. I therefore ask you to allow me time, not exceeding five 
minutes, to state the circumstances under which our several daugh- 
ters have left us. 

In the first place, sir, our five eldest, from time to time, as they 
arrived at pro; a -ked us to allow them to leave, and set up 
for themselves. "We knew them all to be judicious and discreet, 
and therefore not only cheerfully consented, but gave each of them 
a large and good farm outright ; and we are happy to announce to 
this assembly, that they have each husbanded their favors well ; 
made great improvements upon them, by which the value has been 
enhanced to an amount almost beyond calculation ; and there is not, 
to my knowledge, a mortgage of a dollar upon any one of them. 

Thus stands the condition of our five eld 

Our youngest daughter, Clinton, left under very different circum- 
stances. She was young, we thought quite too young and inexpe- 
rienced to manage for herself; and we therefore objected, and told 
her at the outset that she should not have so large a farm as her 
sisters had had on any terms ; and that we would grant even the 
small farm she asked for, only on condition that she should pay 
us a thousand dollars a year for ten years, and that a failure of 
prompt payment should annul the contract. "We thought, sir, that 
such a condition would settle the matter, and stop her entreaties. 
But, sir, instead of that, she assented to our terms so promptly, 
that, feeling a deep interest in her welfare, we were almost fright- 
ened, and probably should have tried to hire her to recant, had we 
not supposed that the bargain would soon be annulled by her failing 
to make prompt payments. But, so far from being delinquent, she 
has already paid seven-tenths of the debt; and, having a much 
smaller farm than any of her sisters, has turned her attention to 
other pursuits, is in a thriving condition, and has already outgrown 
her mother and most of her sisters. This, sir, is a true history of 
the character and condition of our five daughters ; and I will assure 



APPENDIX. 17 r ) 

you that we feel proud of them, and rejoice in their presence on 
this occasion. 

And now, Mr. President, I take this occasion to give notice, 
that, in case we should ever be blessed with another daughter, we 
have lately made ample provision for her education, and will sup- 
port her handsomely, and in good style, at home ; but, if she leaves 
us, she must shirk for herself, for we are determined that the old 
homestead shall never be reduced another rod. We mean to keep 
it large enough to accommodate all our children and grandchildren 
who may favor us with a call at our next centennial. 



11. Old Grandmother, Lancaster. If she is proud of her children, she is no 
less so of her children's children; and, without Berlin and West Boylston, would 
have the family gathering incomplete. 

The Rev. T. C. Tingley, of West Boylston, responded to this 
sentiment. 

Mr. President, — The duty of responding to the call of our 
beloved grandmother devolves on myself, as the gentleman first 
appointed for that purpose, who is a native of West Boylston, is 
not present; and his substitute, who has long been favorably 
known as an adopted citizen, is necessarily absent. 

Though I thought it very desirable that a response should be 
made by a native, or at least by one long resident in the town, 
yet, as I have been xery cordially adopted into the family of the 
granddaughter, and received much kind treatment from the mem- 
bers of that family, I therefore yield to existing circumstances, and 
reply to the sentiment so kindly expressed. 

But as grandparents are proverbially indulgent to their grand- 
children, I hope to receive a share of that indulgence on the 
present occasion. Being comparatively a stranger among you, I 
have not the advantage of a familiar acquaintance with your his- 
tory ; for I have not the honor of being a native of West Boylston, 
or even of Massachusetts, but am a son of little Rhoda, the smallest 
of the thirty-one Sister States. I have felt, however, a deep interest 



IT*'. APPENDIX. 

in tlie town of Lancaster, from the time that I read, in the days of 
my childhood, the affecting story of Mrs. Rowlandson ; and I well 
remember how my spirit kindled with indignation at her recital 
of savage cruelty, and often did I task my young mind as to how 
I should manage to kill an Indian. But these feelings of vengeance 
have long since, I trust, been subdued by a holier influence. Little 
did I anticipate, when first perusing that narrative, that I should 
ever be called to address an assembly like this, on the very ground 
where occurred those scenes of terror and blood. 

I feel a still deeper interest in your history, from the fact, that, 
in the destruction of this town, and the captivity and slaughter of 
your ancestors, the Indians of my native state bore a very promi- 
nent part. When, upon the morning of the 10th of February, 
1G76, on yonder now green and lovely spot, the garrisoned house 
of the Rev. Mr. Rowlandson, your first minister, was surrounded 
by infuriated savages, his family driven by the flames from their 
burning dwelling, his little Sarah mortally wounded in her mother's 
arms, — and when these fields were crimsoned with the blood and 
strewn with the mangled bodies of his flock, and the shriek of 
terror and the groan of death mingled with the appalling war- 
whoop, the red men of Rhode Island were some of the fiercest 
spirits in that scene of horrors. 

It was a Narragansett Indian who seized Mary, the eldest 
daughter of the Rev. Mr. Rowlandson, at the door of the burning 
garrison, and who held her for a time as his property, and then 
sold her to another Indian for a gun. Rhode Island, too, was the 
land of King Philip, who led on that desolating host of barbarians. 
But all those dark sons of the forest have long since passed from 
the shores of time. I have sailed on the beautiful Narragansett 
Bay : Mount Hope, once the royal residence of the proud Sachem 
of the Wampanoags, still looks down upon those waters ; but King 
Philip is gone, the crown is fallen from his head, his painted war- 
riors sleep in death, and Lancaster mothers no longer tremble, and 
press their babes closer to their bosoms, at the shout of the savage 
and the alarm of war. 

When, in the earlier French and Indian wars, Lancaster was 



APPENDIX. 177 

again made a battle-field, on which some of her noblest sons poured 
out their life-blood, and the Rev. John Whiting, then the minister 
of this town, sank in his fearful death-struggle against overwhelm- 
ing numbers, there was then living a child, whose son, in the 
closing war with the French and Indians, when he was but fifteen 
years of age, — an age at which it may seem more suitable that 
he should have been in his mother's arms than in the-field of battle, 
— enlisted in the army destined for the invasion of Canada; thus 
" carrying the war into Africa," and attacking the enemy at the 
very seat of his power. And, with the combined forces under 
General Wolfe, he ascended the St. Lawrence; climbed, in the dark- 
ness of night, the rugged steeps which lie beneath the Plains of 
Abraham ; and when, at daybreak, our troops were seen mar- 
shalled for battle before the walls of Quebec, that youth stood in 
those ranks, shoulder to shoulder with England's warriors ; and, 
before the setting of the sun, he saw that victory won, which 
brought the Canadas under the sway of Britain, and made the 
fear of French and Indian massacre in Lancaster pass away for 
ever. That youth was my paternal grandfather. Oft have I 
listened, with lively interest, to his descriptions of those soul- 
stirring scenes. Thus, although from my native State have flowed 
many of the woes of Lancaster, yet my family have borne a 
part in arresting the tide of invasion and ruin. 

But as children and grandchildren, when assembled at the old 
homestead after a long absence, are usually expected to give a 
report of their doings, it may be expected that West Boylston 
will give an account of herself to " Grandmother Lancaster " on 
the present occasion. 

Though the history of your granddaughter contains few facts of 
general interest, it may be proper to state, that, when she attempted 
to commence a separate establishment, she found great difficulty 
in effecting her purpose, on account of the refusal of your daughter 
Boylston, her mother, to give her consent. 

In consequence of this, much unpleasant feeling was excited, 
and many unkind words were uttered. But a better state of things 
soon succeeded ; and the mother and daughter now dwell side by side 

23 



178 APPENDIX. 

in harmony and love. When she commenced housekeeping, she 
had about six hundred people on her territory ; now she has not far 
from two thousand. She owns between seven and eight thousand 
acres of land ; has three meeting-houses, and four or five cotton 
factories ; and carries on a large business in boot-making. She 
takes an interest in moral and political subjects. She remonstrated 
against the embargo under Jefferson's administration ; but her 
remonstrance did not open a single port. She protested against the 
last war with Great Britain ; but the war went on, and floating 
batteries met in fierce encounter, and hostile legions rushed to the 
field of death. 

Your granddaughter has a number of children still under her 
care ; one of whom, called Oakdale, is a boy of considerable spirit 
and enterprise. He has grown rapidly within a few years ; and, it 
is thought by some, that he is desirous of quitting the old home- 
stead, and setting up for himself. And though the time for such 
a step does not seem as yet to have arrived, it is hoped that his 
prosperity may be such, that it will be expedient, at no very 
distant day, for Oakdale, like your youngest daughter Clinton, to 
commence a separate establishment. 

Reference has been made, by gentlemen who have preceded 
me, to some remarkable changes in manners and customs within 
the last two centuries. Times have, indeed, changed ; and people 
change with the times. In the early days of Virginia, young 
ladies were imported from England, and furnished to the settlers 
for wives, at the rate of one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco 
per head ; and, in a contract for settling a minister in one of the 
towns of this State, it was stipulated that he should receive annu- 
ally, in addition to other articles, so much wood and so much 
grain, and thirty gallons of good West-India rum. Truly may it 
be said, " Old things are passed away ; and behold some things 
have become new ! " 

Permit me, in closing, to offer the following sentiment : — 

" Grandmother Lancaster. Though she is two hundred 
years old this day, yet her eyes are not dim. nor is her natural 
vigor abated." 



APPENDIX. 



179 



The same sentiment was also responded to by Josiah Bride, 
f Berlin. 

Mr. President. — I arise, not to make a speech, but to make 
an excuse. I had no expectation of being here to-day until last 
evening, and but little until this morning; not because I had no 
interest in this occasion, but because, on public days like this, I am 
seldom able to get beyond the limits of my school-room. And I 
stand before you to make this response, because it is a position 
which I cannot avoid. I stand here because I must. 

I have, since I came into this tent, been very forcibly reminded 
of mv own paternal grandmother. When I was a boy, my brothers 
and mvself used to make her frequent visits. I remember them 
well. Especially do I remember how, upon the sabbath, during 
the interval of divine worship, we used to g ross the pas- 

:o call on her, after she had passed the age of ninety years. 
- : md her with a cheerful countenance, under the plain 
but neat cap that characterized those days, and ready to give us a 
cordial welcome. The table was soon set, and the bread and c. 
laid upon it for our repast. How natural that these rem. 
of my vouth should be forced upon me on this occas ion '^rand- 
mother Lancaster has here spread her table: not like the little 
round table of my grandmother, to which I have referred, but the 
long and extended table that fills this spacious tent, loaded with the 
bounties of Providence. 

We would not be - . we do n. but, 

when I have - the honored nam— 

of those venerable men of olden - I Harring- 

ton and Thavr: ep feelings of my soul have been stirred 

within me, not only by the fa _er and a personal 

and affectionate remembrance of the latter, but by the remem- 
brance of another, better known to me, whose praise was in all the 
churches, and who was their cotemporary and friend. And I know 
that grandmother will not feel her clergy dishonored, if I 
with them, in the view of her whole family, one no less honorable 
and : r.ored than Dr. Reuben Pur rlin. 



180 APPENDIX. 

Dr. Puffer was prevailingly taciturn, serious, and dignified ; yet 
few men could be more sociably interesting tban he, whenever his 
thoughts could be drawn up from the deep study in which they 
appeared almost constantly merged. In youth. I was fond of social 
interviews; but most of the evenings spent socially with my com- 
panions have become more or less obscured by the lapse of time, 
and many of them have faded entirely from my memory. But the 
evenings spent in listening to the cheerful conversation and plea-ant 
anecdotes of that venerable man will ever stand out distinctly upon 
the tablets of my recollection. If any one would know something 
of him as a preacher, let him read his valedictory discourse on 
leaving the old meeting-house, his sermon at the dedication of the 
new, or one of two or three other sermons reluctantly given for the 
press ; or let him go to his time-worn and time-honored widow, 
who yet lingers upon the shores of time with us, and select one 
from the bushels of sermons which he left, and he will know some- 
thing of the doctor as a sermonizer; but the half would not be 
known or felt, unless he could imagine the eloquence, the gravity, 
and the warmth with which they were delivered. Ordinary occa- 
sions seemed frequently to be converted into extraordinary ones by 
the pathos and appropriateness of his prayers ; while, on occasions 
really extraordinary, his excursive mind was sure to bring every 
circumstance to the mercy-seat ; and his petitions were offered with 
so much fervency of spirit, that I may say of him, as Wilson said of 
the bird he was describing, " His whole soul seemed to expire in the 
elevated strain." 

An anecdote, which I will relate as I have heard it, will illustrate 
this point: — 

Through the influence of Judge Brigham, of "Westborough, then 
a member of the Legislature, and an admirer of Dr. Puffer, he was 
appointed to preach the Election Sermon. It was customary in 
those days for the clergyman who officiated on that occasion to 
write out his prayer and commit it to memory, not daring to trust the 
moment lor recollecting so many topics necessary to be mentioned. 
The doctor in this particular followed in the steps of his predecessors, 
and committed his prayer to memory ; but he had not proceeded far 



APPENDIX. 181 

when he found himself in an uncomfortable dilemma, and unable to 
tread the path he had marked out. At this moment, a friend of 
Judge Brigham, who sat by his side, with a significant jog of tin- 
elbow whispered, " And that is your minister? " The judge felt as 
uncomfortable as his minister, but kept silent. Soon the doctor 
threw off the trammels of his written form, and gave himself up to 
the current of his own present, gushing thoughts. The transition 
was great ; nothing that should have been thought of was forgotten ; 
and the moistened eyes and deep feeling of the audience, at its close, 
testified that it was no unsuccessful effort. The judge now felt free 
to return the elbowing, and to reply, " That is my minister." By 
an accommodation of this language, we beg permission to say exult- 
ingly, if exultation be proper on such a subject, Dr. Puffer was our 
minister. But I must turn from the dead to the living. 

I agree with the gentleman that has referred to the affection 
that exists between grandmothers and grandchildren, and we are 
very glad to visit grandmother Lancaster to-day. We are glad also 
to find so many of our relatives here. We come to take our mother 
Bolton by the hand, and to assure her that we ever hope to have 
mother " bolt on " in the right ; and are glad to know, that, in these 
peaceful times, instead of elevating her generals and training her 
riflemen, she is disposed to educate her family, — that she is de- 
termined to educate every member of it, without exception or 
invidious distinction. 

We have come to greet aunt Harvard. We rejoice that she is 
satisfied with her dower ; and, when we have heard her speak of it 
in the form of geographical elevations, the spontaneous desire has 
arisen in our hearts, that her intellectual and moral elevation may 
not be inferior to her geographical. 

We shake hands to-day with aunt Leominster. Aunts are some- 
times pretty severe : it may be so with her. At any rate, she is 
constantly combing us ; but we receive it with all due submission, 
and are much consoled by the reflection, that, however severely she 
may comb us, she combs all the world beside. 

We are glad to make ourselves better acquainted with aunt Ster- 
ling; and take pleasure in expressing to her the hope, that the 



182 APPENDIX. 

worth of Sterling, and Sterling worth, may ever be synonymous 
terms. 

Aunt Clinton, too, we are glad to see here, and are happy to 
cultivate her acquaintance. She is much younger than ourselves ; 
but, Mr. President, you know it is nothing strange in human events 
for the aunt to be younger than the niece ; and we beg leave to 
assure her that we have to-day been more fully convinced of the 
truth of the oft-reiterated remark, that the youngest members of a 
family are frequently the brightest. Towards Aunt Boylston and 
cousin West Boylston we also cherish sentiments of kindness and 
respect. 

But, Mr. President, the principal object of our coming here to- 
day is to see our grandmother. We have not been so conversant 
with her of late years as formerly. We used to see her annually 
upon the muster-field, to which she was much attached. The field 
must be here, and she must be upon it. This was perfectly natural. 
Surrounded as she was in her youth by the savage Indians, and 
obliged to employ the means of self-defence, it was very natural for 
her to acquire a military spirit of no ordinary strength. 

But a great change has come over the community ; and the 
muster-field, and the spirit which it tended to foster, are in a great 
measure passed away. It gives us much pleasure to know that 
she is now turning her attention towards the education of her 
numerous family, and the community at large ; and that she is 
employing for this purpose the best teachers that the country 
affords. 

We congratulate her upon this effort, and anticipate great good 
as the necessary and happy result ; feeling assured that this whole 
region will be both intellectually and morally elevated through her 
instrumentality. 

We felt anxious to know whether grandmother wears spectacles. 
We never had any doubt of her intellectual ken, and we have 
never heard that her natural vision was impaired ; but we believe 
she wears spectacles that are both useful and ornamental. We 
think we see them in her lofty trees and magnificent edifices, her 
flowing streams and verdant, wide-spread intervales. But, what- 



APPENDIX. 183 

ever may be said of the spectacles that she wears on ordinary 
occasions, one thing we know, her countenance is to-day enlivened 
by one of the most beautiful spectacles we have ever beheld, more 
splendid than silver or gold. 

Mr. President, the scenes of this day remind me of an incident 
that occurred under my observation two years ago, which, although 
trifling in itself, was to my mind so interesting, and so fully illus- 
trates our feelings on this occasion, that I cannot forbear to relate 
it. As I was riding leisurely up a slight elevation near the village 
of Feltonville, I overtook two little girls, whose ages might vary 
from three to six years. They looked at me with much interest, 
and finally collected courage to speak. They seemed to be so full 
of their subject that they could not remain silent. The elder, after 
a conciliating courtesy, straightened herself up, and exclaimed with 
enthusiasm, " I have been to grandmother's." The younger, elevat- 
ing herself upon her toes till she had attained nearly the height of 
her sister, repeated the exclamation, "I — I have been to grand- 
mother's too ; " when both repeated, with simultaneous voices, 
" We've both been to grandmother's." I think, sir, we shall go 
home to-night, feeling very much like these little girls. Again will 
be heard the enthusiastic exclamation, or at least the spontaneous 
effusions of the heart will be, — "I have been to grandmother's, and 
I have been to grandmother's too, and we have all been to grand- 
mother's." 

Mr. President, I have no sentiment to present. I have not had 
time to prepare a speech or write a sentiment ; but the sentiments 
of affection and regard expressed in these remarks, we leave with 
you, assured that the scenes of this day will never be erased from 
our memories till our hearts cease to vibrate, and we are gathered 
to our fathers. 



12. The Savages, — the deadly foes of the fathers; the valued friends of the 
children. 

The Hon. James Savage, of Boston, as representing the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society and its President, responded to this 
sentiment as follows : — 



184 APPENDIX. 

Mr. Chairman, — I gratefully acknowledge the honor done me 
in this last toast ; but it was wholly unexpected, and must be inade- 
quately repaid. At your invitation, the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, last Thursday, deputed five members to partake in your 
festive solemnity to-day ; and my friends, Dr. Bartlett, of Concord, 
the late President Sparks, of Cambridge, and the late Governor 
Everett, of Boston, were of that number, whose other engagements 
deprive them of the pleasure of appearing for the Society, with the 
orator of this occasion and myself. Might I not, sir, well claim to 
be exempt from contribution to your feast, when my brother of that 
Society, whose command brings me here, has this morning labored 
more than two hours for your amusement and instruction ? And if 
any lady or gentleman of this vast assembly is unsatisfied with that 
exhibition, it can be told me next week ; but greatly will it sur- 
prise me. 

Yet, Mr. Chairman, the profound interest of this anniversary 
stirs every spring of pleasant emotion within me ; and, in honor of 
Lancaster, most heartily would I pour out 

" A merrier tune 
Than the lark warbles on the Ides of June." 

For though, before to-day, I never but once passed an hour in 
your beautiful town, and only half a day then, a strong sympathy 
with the early fortune of this Nashua valley is among the first of 
my youthful associations. More than sixty years since, the good 
Boston family that had the charge of my orphan state being com- 
pelled to exchange one dwelling for another three different times 
in one year, I well remember the doleful'exclamation of the female 
head, that she feared to suffer as many removes as old Mother 
Rowlandson, — so widely had the proverbial expression been dif- 
fused. Who Mother Rowlandson was, in that my first year at the 
town school, I knew as little as of your geography, or other scones 
of her distress. But one year more, and the instruction came. By 
the current events of our Indian war, the defeats of Harmar and 
St. Clair, the shocking massacres and wide conflagrations in the 
Ohio valley, all the sufferings of the prior century became matters 



APPENDIX. 185 

of frequent conversation, especially with those whose relations or 
friends had recently fallen. The war of King Philip, and the 
humble narrative of disasters by those who outlived the tortures of 
captivity, were rendered " familiar as household words." Details 
of the whole Iliad of your infant woes fastened with bewitching 
bonds on my imagination, and ever since have been fresh in my 
memory. 

Still the virtues and the suffering of ancestors that have endeared 
this happy valley, though worthy of perpetual remembrance, need 
not, sir, confine our regards exclusively on this occasion to a con- 
templation of occurrences two hundred years back. You had 
solemn commemoration of the origin of your town, as from our 
orator we learn, one century ago; and for the second time are 
met to reverence that event, in far happier circumstances. May 
we not, therefore, decently reflect on the lapse of only the last half 
of your lifetime, and consider merely how the past century has 
made its rnark for or against us ? Glorious things are told in our 
glad ears, as they were this morning, of the earliest hundred in the 
sun's annual returns on your municipality, when the deep founda- 
tions of a people's character were laid in poverty and peril. Now 
let us ask ourselves, how came we to this wonderful state of 
national wealth, of federal power, of individual and universal 
security, such as no human experience, in so brief a period, ever 
equalled ? 

Mr. Chairman, it is only one hundred years, precisely that, last 
February, since George Washington came into active and respon- 
sible life by attaining his age of twenty -one ; and from that time, 
through the vast extent of our country, in its almost infinitely 
diversified relations, what measure of good, I appeal to all who hear 
me, what measure of good can be seen in the whole that shall not 
be confessed to have intimate reference to him ? A lieutenant of 
the Virginia militia, he was, the very next year, directing the ope- 
rations on one side that began that splendid contest for empire 
between the two greatest nations of the other continent, the battle 
of life or death, for the mastery of this. In one year more, when 
the army of General Braddock, with all the supplies that the wealth 

24 



18G ArPENDIX. 

of Britain could furnish to her regular troops, was defeated with 
such tremendous slaughter as shot a thrill of trepidation through 
our long Atlantic border, from the Savannah to the Kennebeck, the 
hardihood and sagacity of this militia-major seemed alone to avert 
the terrible consequence. From that hour to his death, the story 
of his life is engraven on your memory ; for it is the history of his 
country in every moment of her most complicated, her most dan- 
gerous, her most successful, her most honorable situations. Let it 
be, in any threatening aspect of our future, a perpetual encourage- 
ment in the tenfold more fearful temptations of national glory ; a 
beacon warning, as more than once we feel it was, when our coun- 
try was saved, on the perilous verge of ruin, at one time by the 
firmness, again by the wisdom, and best of all by the integrity of 
Washington. Of his virtues, you have no need to leai-n from the 
records of the past, that hardly an equal, never a superior, graces 
the annals of humanity; but to the proofs of his consummate saga- 
city, my friends, I recommend a more general recourse. To his 
civic wisdom, after the petty perils of war were dissipated, to his 
greatness of forecast in guiding us through the stormiest years 
of convulsion in opinion, extravagance in theory, and recklessness 
in action, — often overruling the majority, that, to gratify their 
cherished prejudices, would have run to destruction ; whose head- 
long impulses derided his counsel, and obeyed the dictation of a 
foreign state, until the ever-present sense of his integrity calmed 
their passion enough to enable them to see their interest, and almost 
to fulfil their duty, — to the rare union of such virtue and such 
wisdom do we owe most of our present happiness, if not even our 
national existence. His greatness was of a kind that desires not 
the glittering array of publicity : he needed not to call on his fellow- 
citizens to see how wise was his plan, to behold how sagacious were 
his methods, to inquire into the infamy that threw aspersion on bis 
motives. Now we can observe that his whole character is beyond 
all defence, for it is above all assault. From the enlightened con- 
versation of all foreigners, as by my own remark on the feelings of 
the people universally in Great Britain, I have fixed in my mind 
this conclusion, that the richest inheritance we have received, the 



APPENDIX. 






surest bulwark we can erect, is, that Washington was ours. When- 
ever we desire to weigh public men, to discriminate between a 
statesman and a politician, how can we be at a k>;.~, how err in the 
decision? Constantly have succeeded, thank Heaven ! a few in the 
land, who truly reverenced the principles of our first President, and 
advised the republic of the safety of his example. But a wis 
sometimes indulged by those who could not imitate, that the lu.-tre 
of Ms virtue may not impede their course. In the days of prosper- 
u may suppose that there is no call for such stern statesmen 
as will not bend right to expediency, and prefer to utter rather the 
true than the pleasant ; you will have crowds to seek your favor, 
who will affect the name, without the service, of patriots ; who 
regard not the honor that belongs to a ruler, so much as the profit 
of a politician ; who would strain after office for its emolument, and 
most justly slight the vain hope "to read their history in a nation's 
In the deeds of that man. in the long years of his duties, 
who built up our renown and our happiness to their unexampled 
height, without selfish thought of his own happiness or glory, you can 
rn the true test of a public servant, and learn by contrast how 
deep should be your contempt for the ever-ready candidate, with no 
other qualification than the arts of a huckster demagogue. Think, 
mv friends, when you have an honor to bestow, of him " first in 
war. first in peace," and you will not mistake in your judgment of 
the meanest reptile that crawls, nor be cheated by the most dis- 
honest of all traders, — a trading politician. 

But I must not. Mr. Chairman, further abuse the indulgen 
:.umerous meeting. Time is too precious for me to do any thing 
more than to express my confident anticipation, that when your 
children of the third and fourth generation, a hundred years i. 

rate this birthday, Lancaster will be seen, in her agriculture, 
her manufactures, her edifices, public and private, her groves, her 
fruits, her flowers, — in everything that now occupies the thoughts 
. except the training of her children, which can hardly 
admit of improvement, — to be as far above the m a r k of her pres- 
ent felicity, as is the present superior to that of a hundred years 
back ; and I will cease rambling longer by proposing a sentiment : 



188 APPENDIX. 

" May the next centennial celebration here be as happy in refer- 
ring to its chief glory in the path of a hundred years, as we of this 
age have been in our possession of Washington ! " 



13. Levi Lincoln. Fearless amid the stormy trials of political life, the kindness 
of his heart and the graces of his manners have encircled with a crown the hours of 
his retirement. 

The honorable gentleman responded to this sentiment in a few 
eloquent remarks. 



14. The American Antiquarian Society. 

In reply to our request for the response to this sentiment, we 
have received a letter from the Rev. Edward E. Hale, which 
will be found under the head of " Letters." 



15. The Medical Faculty of Boston. 



Dr. J. V. C. Smith, a native of Leominster, though a resident 
now of Boston, replied to this toast, but has not furnished us with a 
copy of his remarks. 



16. The Ancient Town op Salem. The pioneer town of Worcester County sends 
greeting to her pioneer sister of Essex. 

The following remarks were made by the Hon. Charles "W. 
Upham, of Salem: — 

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen, — In obeying the 
call to respond to the sentiment in honor of the city of my abode, 
allow me to say that it gave me the liveliest satisfaction to hear 
that the people of Lancaster were preparing to observe with due 
ceremonials, and with the festivities and mutual congratulations it 
demands and deserves, this its second centennial anniversary. 



APPENDIX. 

It is well for the Massachusetts towns to observe commemo- 
rative occasions. "We have a noble ancestry: we ought to keep 
them alive for ever in our memory. The incidents of our early 
annals were, in many respects, very remarkable : they were romantic 
and atfecting to the highest degree, — often distressing and fearful 
at the time, but, in their remote influences and final effects, most 
benignant and auspicious. They suggest grateful and salutary 
reflections, and lead the meditative thought to the recognition of an 
overruling Providence, more than almost any other chapter of 
human history. 

Local attachment, — a love for the homes of our childhood and 
youth, for the scenes that witnessed the experiences and contain the 
ashes of our fathers, — is instinctive in the human breast ; and 
every wise and good man cherishes it. It is one of the most effi- 
cient and auspicious elements of national character ; and nowhere 
ought it to be cherished more fervently than in these Massachusetts 
villages, — nowhere more than in Lancaster. 

Where in the annals of the world, — where on the face of the 
earth, — has a spectacle been presented to the eye or the heart of 
man more delightful and animating, more soul-elevating and sublime, 
than this lovely village presents to-day? Surely nature never 
wore so deep or so rich a green, — never did she breathe a more 
benignant influence upon the heart of the beholder, than here at 
this hour. I call upon our travelled friends, upon Mr. Savage and 
Dr. Smith, to say whether, in all their wanderings in the father-land 
or the remote East, their eyes ever fell upon a scene surpassing in 
loveliness that which surrounds us. Where is there a sweeter 
field than yonder meadow, shining in beauty and teeming with fertile 
fragrance, on the sides of the Xashua, as it winds through the thick, 
overhanging foliage that almost veils from sight its placid and 
mirror surface ? Where can any thing be found approaching the 
majestic, wide-branching, towering, and graceful elms, that adorn 
these fields, and line these broad roads ? The sun, as he ro.-e in 
the splendors of this summer morning, greeted by the booming 
cannon and the pealing bell, and by grateful throngs gathering to 
the scene of their fond recollections, and as he has circled the 



100 APPENDIX. 

heavens, has not shone upon a purer, deeper, more rational happi- 
ness than we are experiencing to-day. 

The circumstances of my early life, like those of my friend Mr. 
Savage, to which he has referred, allowing no permanent place of 
residence, enabled me to regard Lancaster as entitled, as much 
perhaps as any other place, to be considered as my local habitation. 
My summer college vacations were spent here. Many of my early 
impressions of the beauties of nature and the pleasures of rural life 
were received here. The types and models, which memory has 
ever recalled in subsequent years, of loveliness of landscape, were 
originally derived from this " happy valley." I can see now, in the 
\ isions of the long past, the summer cloud, as it gathered around 
the base of Wachusett, and, thickening as it advanced, parted at the 
turbaned summit of George's Hill, and poured out its showers 
and spread its rainbows, as it sailed off on the north and south, and 
disappeared in the eastern horizon. 

With these recollections and these associations, I felt myself as 
strongly and as warmly addressed by the " Welcome Home " 
inscribed on your walls to-day, as any native of the spot. 

Further, Mr. Chairman, I felt that I had a right to accept the 
invitation with which I was honored, to be present at the great 
family gathering of old Lancaster ; for I helped to educate one of 
her fairest daughters. I taught a district school in Bolton ; and so 
I did in Leominster, in the district to which the Hon. David Wilder 
belongs. While he was making his admirable speech, I felt like 
crying out, "That is my thunder." I claim, indeed, to be at home 
in this whole region, am proud of its virtues, rejoice in its pros- 
perity, and participate in the fond affection with which its inhabi- 
tants cling, and its children return, to it. 

We are assembled beneath the trees, and on the land, of the late 
Captain Samuel Ward. More than a quarter of a century has 
elapsed since his removal from the scene ; but his memory, I am 
sure, is as fresh in the hearts of all the elder inhabitants of the 
town as it is in mine. He was the friend of my father, and the 
friend of my youth. Upon hearing of my being in college at Cam- 
bridge, he sent for me, and gave me a home under his roof. He 



APPENDIX. 191 

was a gentleman of the old school, in the best sense of that exi 
sion. His mansion was consecrated to a generous and simple 
hospitality, and was frequented by the best society of all parts of 
the Commonwealth. The circle of his friends embraced the prin- 
cipal persons of his day. For cordial and unaffected kindness, for 
keen but most benignant humor, for acute and never-erring discern- 
ment of character, he had a reputation that extended far and wide, 
and still lives in choicest traditions, and in anecdotes that will never 
cease to be cherished and repeated. Hi- influence upon this town 
and parish was invaluable. At that time, sir, the town and parish 
of Lancaster were identical. Long after every other town had 
been divided and broken into fragments of contending sects, the 
people of Lancaster, up to the period of my recollection, adhered 
to the beautiful usages of the olden time ; and, with one mind and 
one heart, worshipped, under one roof, the God of their fathers. 
To the preservation of this union and harmony. Captain Ward most 
eminently contributed. By his wisdom, hi- wit, his kin 
his vigilance, alienation and disagreement were nipped in the bud. 
He was a conservator of the peace, a " man of Ross : " — 

" Is there a variance] Open but his door, 
Balked are the courts, and contest is no more." 

He was a benevolent man. In the use of his abundance, he contrib- 
uted to the relief and the aid of many. I will only mention, in 
illustration of his wise and beneficent liberality, that he enabled a 
young relative, a son of Worcester county and Worcester city, to 
obtain an education at Harvard University, which, based upon 
superior natural endowments, and followed up by great subsequent 
culture and opportuniti suited in giving to the country and 

the world the - Historian of the United States 

There is one other person in the history of Lancaster, to whom 
my feelings compel me on this occasion to bear a grateful testimony. 
In my youth, I enjoyed the friend-hip. the hospital ;• . 
and the patronage of the late reverend and venerable 
Thayer. He was indeed a good man. a devoted pastor, and a true 
Christian. His character has been traced to-day by a ju- 



192 



APPENDIX. 



discriminating pen. His virtues have been recalled to mind by 
various allusions and associations. My heart, with its deepest sen- 
sibility, unites in every tribute to his memory, in every testimonial 
of his worth, in every recollection of his honored name. 

In the sentiment to which I am called to respond, you were kind 
enough to associate the county of Essex with the county of Wor- 
cester : allow me, in taking my seat, to give the following : — 

" The County of Worcester. It is generally spoken of as 
the Heart of the Commonwealth. We, who live in other sections 
of the State, cheerfully and cordially acknowledge that the heart is 
in the right place." 



17. A Paradox. — The Master Printer, who has always been a 'Prentice (Pren- 
tiss), a Type of a Rev. Prototype. One was a faithful watchman in the Church of 
Lancaster; the other has been a Keene Sentinel among the hills of New Hampshire. 

The Hon. John Prentiss, of Keene, having been called on, 
responded. 

Mr. President, — I am not a native, neither have I ever resided 
in Lancaster. I am therefore indebted, for this courtesy, to the 
simple fact of being a descendant, " the type of a reverend proto- 
type ; " " one who was a faithful watchman in the church of Lan- 
caster," — a 'Prentice, yes, " a workman that needeth not to be 
ashamed." You have referred to me, sir, as having been a " Sentinel 
among the hills of New Hampshire." Your toast is full of figures, 
— I must get clear of them as fast as possible. It is true that, 
for forty-eight years, I had the oversight of a press. It does not 
become me to speak of Ihe good I may have done in this long 
period; but I will take the liberty of authors and publishers, by 
appending the recommendation of an excellent friend who lately 
died in the insane hospital. He was earnest in commending the 
Sentinel as really one of the very best newspapers published. " In 
the domestic department," he said, I was "judicious in my selec- 
tions" [probably from industriously collecting all the horrid murders, 



APPENDIX. 193 

shocking railroad and other accidents, of the week]. In the foreign 
I was capital, keeping every reader well posted up; "but in the 
moral and religious department," said he, " he 's a whaler." So 
much for the type and the prototype. 

During several years of the last century, I resided in the neigh- 
boring town of Leominster, and then well knew many of your 
excellent townsmen, — your Sprague, your Stedman, Rice, the 
Whitings, Fisher, your distinguished surgeon Dr. Carter, and your 
beloved, then sole minister, the late Dr. Thayer. Dr. Thayer was 
present at two ordaining councils in Keene ; officiated in forming 
the Unitarian church there, in 1825 ; and baptized a beloved 
daughter, who lingered but a few hours after the ordination services. 
With General John Whiting I had pleasant business relations in 
after years. He was one of nature's noblemen ; but, although he 
could readily face the bullets or the bayonets of an enemy, he could 
never march up to the official and dignified outward bearing of his 
excellent brother, 'Squire Timothy. 

Many of our citizens in Keene, who have now departed, highly 
respected and worthy men, emigrated from Lancaster. Deacons 
Abijah Wilder and Elijah Carter were of the number; also the 
venerable Abel Wilder, still among the living. We count also 
many excellent mothers, living and dead, natives of Lancaster. 

Mr. President, this is a day for pleasant reminiscences, and my 
allotted minutes are fast slipping away. My maternal grandfather 
was the Rev. John Mellen, of Chocksett, now Sterling, and one 
of the numerous children of Mother Lancaster. He married a 
daughter of the Rev. John Prentice. He was a strong man of his 
times, with sound learning ; one of the " olden time," — stern in 
his manner ; orthodox, in the general acceptation of the term, as his 
numerous printed discourses show (as were all his contemporaries 
at that period, excepting Mr. Rogers of Leominster *) ; and I well 



* An excellent History of Leominster, by the Hon. David Wilder, of Leominster, 
has just been published, containing the charges and results of Council in Mr. Rogers's 
case. His views, not materially differing from those of a large body of Christians 
at the present day in this Commonwealth, were then deemed heretical, and he was 
deposed. He preached to his few adherents, however, for many years afterwards. 

25 



194 APPENDIX. 

remember that no wig exceeded his in size. He took part in the 
memorable controversy, before the Revolution, about faith and 
works (in Worcester County), Arminianism and the five points ; 
and had for a competitor the elder John Adams, then a student at 
law and schoolmaster in Worcester.* 

I shall cut nobody's corners, I trust, by relating a reminiscence 
of old Confederation times. At this period, it was common for one 
of the deacons to line the hymn, as it was called, in church. There 
were then but few books, and fewer imported singing-books. My 
grandfather had for some time been dissatisfied with the mode, and 
perhaps this was heightened by the bad reading of his deacon ; for 
there were but very few good readers in that day, as in this. 
On a cloudy day, we will presume, he gave out Watts's psalm, 
commencing, 

*• Along the Idumcan road, 
Away from Bozrah's gate." 

The good deacon may not have rubbed his spectacles that morning, 
or his book may have been thumbed too long ; but he read the 
two lines on this wise : 

" Along the Idgemugcon road, 
Away from Boozy's gate." 

This was too bad, — quite beyond endurance. The parson set 
about forming a choir, and the lining of the hymn was soon dis- 
pensed with. But many of the old people could not forgive him ; 

* His son, the late Chief Justice Meilen, of Maine, once informed me that his father, 
as he advanced in age, did not adhere to all the theological opinions of his middle 
life. After he settled in Hanover, about the year 1795, his children, seven in number, 
all housekeepers, and residing within the limits of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, 
met together, with the parents (sixteen in the whole), adopted rules and regulations, 
chose a President and Secretary, and agreed to meet annually at the house of some 
one of the members in succession, and spend at least two days together. By one of 
the articles, vacancies by death were to be filled from the next generation. These 
happy meetings, where a record was kept of births, marriages, and deaths, and other 
important events, were continued more than thirty years. In our family, as the 
elder branch, are preserved excellent portraits of the father and mother. The can- 
vas strikingly speaks out prominent traits of character. 



APPENDIX. 195 

and, with some other troubles, he took up his connection with the 
parish : as my good old aunt informed me thirty or forty years 
ago, "he gained his point, but lost his parish." He resided several 
years in Cambridge, and was afterwards settled in Hanover, where 
he continued until advanced age caused him to ask to be relieved. 
In his last years, he resided with my mother, then a widow in 
South Beading. The mind was doubtless somewhat impaired with 
the body. The family consisted principally of females ; and the old 
gentleman, at times, was somewhat difficult to please. At any 
rate, things did not always go right. One day he was overheard 
talking to himself, — u Solomon, Solomon ! they call him the 
• I man that ever lived. He was the greatest fool, or he would 
never have had so many women about him.'' His monument, 
erected by his children, is in the old burying-ground at South 
Reading. 

Mr. President, I give you as a sentiment : — 

•■ Time-hoxoeed Laxcastee/' Her •' bines have fallen to her 
in pleasant pla 



IS. The old Schoolmasters op L - We remember them with gratitude. 

To their lab:. fulness we are indebted for much of our prosperity. We 

expect some of them to rise and answer like a Proctor. 

The remarks of the Hon. Johx W. Proctoe, of Danvers. 

Mr. Chairman, — I am under great obligations for that kindness 
which has for thirty-five years borne in mind my name in connec- 
tion with the schools of Lancaster, though I had not anticipated 
being called on to answer in their behalf. But, sir, when our Xew- 
England schools are mentioned, I do not feel at Liberty to be 
entirely silent ; notwithstanding there may be others much better 
entitled to respond for the Lancaster School (s). 

It was my privilege, sir, to succ- I Mr. Sparks in the care of the 
school established in this place by the Messrs. Cleveland, Thayer, 
Higginson. Ward, and others, which for a time had some reputa- 



196 APPENDIX. 

tion ; and which, if judged by its fruits, is still worthy of remem- 
brance. Its history affords a striking illustration of the remark, 
that 

" Large streams from little fountains flow," 

when we bear in mind that the President of Harvard College, the 
biographer of Washington, and the most eminent historian of 
America, once occupied the humble tenement on yonder old Com- 
mon, in which this school was begun. I remember, sir, when I 
first came into town, and sought the place in which I was to labor, 
I found it necessary to make my obeisance before I could enter ; 
and when in, with the boys around me, to be careful how I turned 
about, lest I should tread upon their toes. No desk of mahogany, or 
cushioned chairs, were there ; but the pine-table and the three-legged 
stool were the best accommodations afforded. Nevertheless, progress 
was made ; and I am not quite sure it was any the less for the want 
of the greater conveniences of the present day. Where there is a 
will, there is a way ; and those who are determined to learn will 
learn, whatever may be the obstacles interposed. 

Of the schools of the town at this time, my own observation will 
not authorize me to speak. But, if they are to be judged by the 
reputation of those who have watched over them, they will at no 
time be found to have been wanting. 

When I came into town to-day, sir, I inquired for my old school- 
room, and found that it had disappeared ; and so with the building 
that next followed it. But, sir, I was gratified to learn that the 
stately structure on yonder eminence, almost rivalling the beautiful 
church that came into being while I resided here, is a seminary for 
the qualification of teachers. I know of no place better suited 
for such an institution than this beautiful vale of the Nashua, with 
its magnificent elms, and extended meads clothed with luxuriant 
verdure. Central as it is, in the midst of a population distinguished 
for industry and intelligence, I can see no reason why the sun of 
science shall not radiate its beams from this place through the 
land. 

When first advised of this bicentennial gathering, my sympathies 



APPENDIX. 197 

were deeply enlisted, as I had just been engaged in reviewing the 
historical events of that part of old Salem from which I come ; one 
of the very few towns in Massachusetts of older date than Lancas- 
ter. While Lancaster was smitten with the tomahawk and scalping- 
knife of the native sons of the forest, Salem was still more griev- 
ously smitten with the cruder vagaries of misguided fanaticism, to 
which my friend, the late Mayor, has so eloquently alluded. I was 
most happy, sir, to hear him award ample justice to that emi- 
nent citizen of your town, in whose beautiful grove we are now 
assembled. He was indeed a gentleman, whose urbanity and intel- 
ligence are worthy to be perpetuated on the brightest page of your 
history. But, sir, while we call to mind the sufferings endured by 
our fathers in their frontier settlements, by what was deemed the 
cruelties of the savage, are we to forget entirely the provoca- 
tions the savages had for these cruelties? Look at them, sir, in 
the quiet possession of their own corn-fields, fishing-streams, and 
hunting-grounds, gradually crowded away from them all ; and, 
what is worse, deprived of their reason by the use of the intoxica- 
ting liquors diffused among them by the white men, — and who will 
dare to say that the red men of Massachusetts, with the brave 
Philip at their head, ever inflicted unreasonable cruelties ? 

Bearing in mind your salutary admonition, " Be short," I beg 
leave to congratulate you, and all concerned, on the splendid success 
of this day's celebration ; and to propose as a sentiment one that 
I had the honor to announce one year ago, at our celebration in 
Danvers. 

"Education, a debt due from the present to future genera- 
tions." 



19. The Citizens of Lancaster, — so excellent in character, that even their 
Wilder sons and daughters, both at home and abroad, are and have been highly 
esteemed. They are represented here to-day by their Marshall. 

The Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, of Dorchester, made the 
followimi remarks : — 



198 APPENDIX. 

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen, — It gives me 
unfeigned pleasure to respond to your call, and gratefully to 
acknowledge the honor conferred on me by the sentiment just 
announced. 

At no small personal sacrifice, I am here to-day to exchange 
mutual congratulations, and to participate in the festive and intel- 
lectual entertainment of this occasion. When I first received the 
cordial invitation of your Committee, I felt that it would be impos- 
sible for me to indulge myself with this privilege ; but the more 
I thought of you, and my kindred still residing among you, — the 
more I thought of my venerable ancestry, and of the place which 
has given most of them both birth and burial, — the more I felt 
drawn towards you by an invisible power ; and I am here for the 
plain reason that I could not resist the inducements to be present. 
To have remained at home, and have taken no part in the proceed- 
ings of this interesting occasion, would not only have done violence 
to my own feelings, but would have been an apparent disregard 
of the memory and worth of my fathers. 

I am allied, Mr. President, to the good people of Lancaster and 
Sterling, not merely by a common humanity and citizenship, but 
by the closer ties of consanguinity and a cherished ancestry. My 
honored father, who has resided in Pundge, N. H., for more than 
sixty years, was born among you, and here passed the first sixteen 
years of his life. He was the youngest of a large and respectable 
family, some of whom still remain ; and, God be praised, he is here 
to-day, with others of the Wilder family, some of whom have come 
up from a distant part of our country to participate with us in the 
pleasures of this meeting. 

My grandfather, Captain Ephraim Wilder, inherited the place of 
his father, a gentleman of the same name and title, and resided in 
the first house in Sterling, on the main road, just after you pass 
the boundaries of this town. This estate was originally in the 
second precinct of Lancaster, and has been in the family for a cen- 
tury or more, and I hope will always remain in the hands of my 
kindred. Captain Wilder was a member of the Massachusetts 
Convention for the adoption of the Constitution of the United 



APPENDIX. 199 

States in 1787, and one of the only seven members from Worcester 
County who voted in favor of this memorable document. He was 
also for many years a representative from the town of Sterling in 
the Massachusetts Legislature, and died at the age of seventy-two, 
universally lamented ; and his memory is cherished to this day. 

In the presence of so many matrons and maidens, it would be 
unpardonable did I not allude to my excellent grandmother. She 
was Miss Lucretia Locke, the sister of the Rev. Samuel Locke, 
President of Harvard College, also one of the citizens of Lancaster, 
of the stock of John Locke, the great metaphysician and philosopher, 
and who first, if you will permit the parody, vx-locked the " Human 
Understanding." 

The Wilders were among the earliest settlers of this town, as we 
have been informed by the orator of the day. They were also 
engaged in the Indian and Revolutionary Wars ; and some of them 
sacrificed their lives and their fortunes in defence of their rights, 
their homes, and their country. Time will not allow me to speak 
of other branches of this extensive family than those with which I 
am immediately connected; and, besides, there are distinguished 
representatives present who need no man to speak for them. They 
are abundantly able to speak for themselves. I may, however, be 
permitted to quote, in relation to the Wilder family, what the editor 
of the "Worcester Magazine" (vol. ii. p. 45) is pleased to say, 
" that of all the ancient Lancaster families, there is no one that has 
sustained so many offices as this," — a fact which may be ascribed 
either to their abilities or to their laudable ambition; and you will 
permit me, their lineal descendant, but unworthy representative, to 
appropriate, with some modification, the words of one of old, " Seeing 
that others glory in their ancestry, I more, the Wildest of the. 
Wilders." 

So far as my knowledge extends, our worthy ancestors lived here 
in all good conscience and perfect peace among themselves. I 
never heard of but one quarrel among them, and that was in the 
church; and whether it ought to be accounted an honor or a 
reproach, you shall judge when you have heard the story. 

When recruits were called for to quell the Shays Rebellion, the 



200 APPENDIX. 

citizens of Lancaster assembled in their meeting-house. The pre- 
liminaries having been arranged, the drum was beat through the 
aisles of the church for volunteers. One of our family, afterwards 
a most worthy deacon of Rev. Dr. Thayer's church, and well known 
to many who now hear me, was the first to volunteer ; and, although 
but eighteen years of age, filed in immediately after the drummer. 
As the music marched round and round, a distant relative 
reproached him for his youth and rashness, to whom my uncle gave 
the caution not to repeat the oifence. But, when he marched round 
again, and heard the remark renewed, he stepped from the ranks 
into the pew, and gave the offender a few blows from the rod of 
retributive justice, not perhaps exactly in accordance with military 
discipline. This exhibition of buoyant spirit so awoke the courage 
of the company, that the complement of volunteers was soon mus- 
tered ; and the next morning the young hero was on his way in 
pursuit of the rebel, and contributed his full share in suppressing 
the insurrection, and restoring public order and peace. 

But, Mr. President, he, and the venerable men whose precious 
memory we have met to embalm, and whom we delight to honor, 
have ceased from their labors ; but surely their works do follow 
them. The institutions which they founded are our richest inherit- 
ance. 

As we turn from the fathers to the children, how wonderful the 
improvements which everywhere salute our eyes ! The wilderness, 
once terrible by the howling of savage beasts and more savage men, 
has become a lovely landscape, with highly cultivated fields, fruitful 
orchards, and smiling gardens. Those rude huts and log-cabins 
have given place to these commodious and elegant houses ; those 
bloody hostilities have yielded to public oixler and domestic peace ; 
all around, extensive manufactories, the industrial arts, schools 
and churches, an enterprising and affluent population, greet our 
eyes. 

Who can estimate the debt of gratitude we owe to the men who 
have laid the foundation of domestic peace and social order, and 
of the literary, civil, and religious institutions which bless the com- 
munity in which we live ? 



APPENDIX. 201 

True, they did not anticipate the abundant harvest we gather 
from the seed of their sowing. And, indeed, who of us can predict 
the progress of society in the next hundred years ? Ere that day 
shall arrive, we shall have joined them in their silent repose. 
Others will then assemble, to celebrate a third centennial. Who 
can tell us what shall then be the population of this town ; — what 
new or improved arts it shall then prosecute ; — what shall be the 
amount of its resources, intelligence, virtue, and happiness ; — much 
less what circle shall then bound our rapidly extending country ; — 
what shall be the measure of her prowess and prosperity ; — or 
whether, ere that morning shall dawn, the American Republic shall 
not be commensurate with the American Continent — with the 
entire globe — by her institutions made free, intelligent, and happy, 
and brought into the liberty and light of millennial day ? 

Mr. President, I have exhausted my full share of the time, and 
I will bring my remarks to a close. 

Standing, sir, as we do, on the line which divides the past from 
the future, let us extend the hand of gratitude to the fathers who 
have gone before us, and that of right cordial welcome to the 
descendants who shall come after us ; and, as none of us will be 
present at the next centennial of the town of Lancaster, I propose 
to submit, for the adoption of this assembly, the following sentiment, 
to be presented on that occasion. I give you, ladies and gen- 
tlemen : — 

"Beloved Descendants of the Inhabitants of Lancas- 
ter, — Welcome to the rich inheritance which we have received 
from our fathers. Welcome to the liberty which they purchased, 
and which we have preserved. Welcome to the fields which we 
both have cultivated ; to our orchards and gardens ; to our comforts, 
homes, and hearts ; to all our institutions, civil, literary, and reli- 
gious ; and, having acted well your part in the great drama of life, 
welcome to our sepulchres, and to a participation with us in an 
inheritance incorruptible and eternal." 



26 



202 APPENDIX. 

The Hon. John G. Thurston, who, after the President had 
retired, oecupied the chair, being called upon, said: — 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — We cannot but feel that we are greatly 
privileged in being upon the stage to behold this great and joyful 
family meeting, and in witnessing an occasion of such deep and 
thrilling interest. I have looked forward for years with the fondest 
anticipations to the time when the friends of our youthful days, now 
living, should be gathered under the old roof-tree, and join in this 
glorious revival of olden times ; and, although I have anticipated 
much, I can truly say that my expectations have been more than 
realized. 

The occasion has served to strengthen the ties that bind one 
generation to another, and to awaken in each heart more kindly 
feelings ; and there is no one present, I hope, but can say that " it 
is good for us to be here." 

If there are any among this vast assembly who had any idea that 
Lancaster had no distinguished sons who could speak for her, I 
hope the remarks you have this day listened to may have dispelled 
the illusion. 

Our friendly gathering reminds me of the reply of the Roman 
matron to a lady, her guest, who showed her jewels, inviting 
praise of their beauty. She called in her children on their 
return from school, and, presenting them, said, " These are my 
jewels." 

In the two cases there seems to be this difference, — The cele- 
brated lady of ancient times, as her children were still young, 
placed her glory somewhat in embryo ; while, our children being 
of age, and having this day spoken for themselves, the glory of 
Lancaster has been consummated. 



Remarks of the Hon. Charles Hudson, of Boston. 

Mr. President, — At this late hour, after the exhibition of stir- 
ring eloquence, noble sentiment, and sparkling wit, with which we 
have been regaled, I do not intend to make a speech. Your ten 



APPENDIX. "203 

minutes' rule, which has operated so severely in some instanc 
just suited to my case. I will not violate the rule. "While I can- 
not claim this town as my birthplace, I can trace my ancestors to 
Lancaster. Daniel Hudson, the father of most, if not all, who bear 
that name in this country, emigrated from England about 1640; 
and, some twenty or twenty-five years afterwards, came to Lancas- 
ter, and purchased a proprietor's right of Major Simon Willard. 
He had a number of sons, some of whom, with their descendants, 
remained here for a long period. I do not learn that they were 
particularly distinguished while they remained among you ; though 
I believe that your records show that one of them received a bounty 
from the town, in 1687, of six acres of land, for killing wolves. My 
grandfather, the fourth in descent from the original emigrant, lived 
in the town of Northborougb. He had seven sons, all of whom, 
together with their father, were in the service of their country 
during some part of the Revolutionary "War. So, Mr. President, 
though I cannot claim any royal lineage, I think I may claim the 
glory of having descended from the town of Lancaster and the 
American Revolution. This is honor enough for me. 

The occasion which has called us together naturally leads us to 
contemplate the past, and to compare it with the present. The 
wilderness to which our fathers emigrated, and which was at that 
time the home of the savages, has long since been converted into 
cultivated fields, the abodes of civilization and refinement; and, 
from the exhibition I have witnessed here to-day, I am convinced 
that the wolves with which my ancestor contended have given place 
to fawns and lambs. The changes which have taken place in this 
country since the first settlement of this town are calculated to fill 
us with astonishment. "What have two hundred years accomplished ? 
But we have no need, in this country, of reviewing events by 
centuries. "With us a decade is as a century in other countries. 
"Within my own recollection, a wonderful change has come over "the 
spirit of our dreams." I can remember when some of our bold and 
adventurous citizens actually emigrated to the New State, a- Ver- 
mont was then called; and some of the reckless rovers even dared to 
start for the For West, viz. for Whitesborough, or the German I 



204 APPENDIX. 

Then came the Ohio fever, and many were disposed to try their 
fortune in that Western "World. But though some were willing, in 
the language of the emigrant's song, 

" To settle on the banks of the pleasant Ohio," 

none were presumptuous enough to think of crossing the Mississippi. 
But in a short time came Michigan and Wisconsin and Iowa, as 
places of attraction ; and these were followed by Oregon and Cali- 
fornia ; so that now the Mississippi is the centre of the country, and 
the West is beyond the summit of the Rocky Mountains. Or if we 
turn our attention eastward, going to Europe is but crossing a ferry ; 
so that for invalids, and seekers of pleasure, to visit the Eastern 
Continent is but going home to thanksgiving. And all these mighty 
changes have taken place within the memory of many who are here 
to-day. 

But, while we rejoice in the extent of our country and the 
spread of our population, we should never forget our own blessed 
New England. Let our citizens, if they will, emigrate to the Far 
West ; let our sons, if they must, leave the land of the Pilgrims to 
seek " a log-house beyond the mountains : " too many of them will 
find that they have gone from home. Give me a place beneath the 
shade of your majestic elms, and they may regale themselves in 
the oak-openings of the West. Let me look upon your intervales, 
blooming under cultivation ; and they may gaze upon their vast 
prairies, teeming with wild luxuriance. Give me a home on the 
banks of your beautiful Nashua ; and they may settle upon the 
Ohio, the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Columbia, or the golden 
Sacramento. They may find more extensive prairies, denser 
forests, higher mountains, and larger streams, than exist among us ; 
but they cannot find a purer moral atmosphere or better institu- 
tions. They must give up, in some degree at least, what makes 
New England what she is, — the district school and the village 
church. These are our jewels ; these have made New England 
the pride of the country, the praise of the world. Let the Califor- 
nian rely upon his golden sands, to sustain and support that infant 



APPENDIX. 

State, — that first-born on the Pacific ; we, of New England, will 
rely upon our schools and our churches, as the ark of our safety. 
These are the monuments of our fathers' wisdom, and to these we 
look for temporal and spiritual prosperity. 

" New England, my country, I love thee for these." 



20. The Carter Family, — early connected with the history of Lancaster; nume- 
rous in its branches; respected at home, and honored abroad. 

To this sentiment, James Coolidge Carter, Esq., of New 
York, responded ; but the Committee have not received a copy of 
his remarks. 



A sentiment being offered complimentary to the name of Fletcher, 
the Hon. Thomas Fletcher, of Philadelphia, responded : — 

Mr. Chairman, — After I had retired from the assembly, I was 
informed that you had called on me to respond to a toast compli- 
mentary of the Fletcher family. I therefore, in conformity with a 
fixed rule of the Fletchers, "never to flinch from duty/' have 
returned, not to make a speech, — for I had no expectation of being 
called on, — but to thank you for the honor you have done us, and 
to give you some reminiscences of the Fletcher family. 

My great ancestor, Joshua Fletcher, came from Chelmsford 
about the year 1680, and settled on George Hill, directly w orth of 
the present brick meeting-house ; and his house is still standing, 
and in possession of his descendants. His son John was born in 
the house ; and his son Joshua, my grandfather, was born and died 
there, at the age of ninety, without ever having travelled forty miles 
from home. But he was, in truth, a Lancaster man ; for. at the 
commencement of the troubles of the Revolution, he was one of 
the Committee of Safety ; and, when the news reached him of the 
battle of Lexington, he left his plough in the furrow, mounted his 



■J 06 



APPENDIX. 



horse, and proceeded without delay to Concord, to join the " rebel?." 
Several of his sons were called out by the stirring times ; among 
them my uncle Peter, who volunteered at sixteen years of age. 
My father then lived at Grafton, and kept a store, which he left for 
awhile, and shouldered his musket. Afterwards, in that dreadful 
winter of 1778, when General "Washington's army were lying at 
Valley Forge, in Pennsylvania, without shoes or clothing, my 
father, Timothy Fletcher, volunteered to proceed through the snows 
of the wilderness, leading his horse, afoot and alone, with such 
supplies as the town could raise ; and was fortunate enough to reach 
home in safety. But the war did not leave the defenders of their 
country any immediate reward for their toils : they were impover- 
ished, and their children scattered over the country. Only a small 
portion of the family now remain in old Lancaster. I will conclude 
with thanks for your kind remembrance of our family. 



The Rev. Hubbard "Winslow, of Boston, being present, was 
called upon to address the assembly, and made the following 
remarks : — 

Mr. President, — I thank you very sincerely for inviting me to 
speak, although I rise not without some hesitation ; since, not 
claiming the honor of nativity in this town, I fear standing in the 
way of those having a prior claim. As it has been my lot to pass 
a portion of my recent life among you, I am glad of the opportunity 
to express the deep interest which I shall ever cherish in this 
beloved town. Every hill and valley, every pond and stream, 
every grove, and every winding walk and drive through these 
beautiful and wide-spreading groves, every one of these glorious 
old elms, speaks to my heart of happy days passed here. More 
especially, these familiar faces remind me of the affectionate sympa- 
thies and the abounding kind hospitalities realized by myself and 
my family during my residence among you. This was to us a 
"green spot" in life, which nothing but duty could have induced as 



APPENDIX. 207 

to leave. We shall ever count it a privilege to remember and to 
be remembered as having a place among you. 

But I must not dwell upon these personalities; in respect to 
which, however, I could not persuade myself to say less. We have 
to-day enjoyed a repast of precious remembrances of two hundred 
years. The respected gentleman who furnished the entertainment, 
while sitting by my side in the car on the way here last evening, 
remarked to one of his venerable college class-mates near him, that 
he was in Lancaster two hundred years ago, and delivered the first 
public address here. The particular mode of his presence on that 
occasion, I leave it for that gentleman's metempsychosis to explain. 
His ancient friend replied that he recollected hearing of the fact at 
the time, being also himself then on the stage ; and that, if his 
memory served him right, the address was reported to have been a 
very indifferent performance. I confess to some anxiety then felt 
by myself in anticipation of this morning. But I had not sat long 
under his voice in the church before my anxieties were dispelled 
by a convincing demonstration that our truly venerable orator had 
not lived two hundred years in vain. His faults seem to have been 
of the kind mentioned by Pitt, — those which time cures. A diligent 
student and a careful observer for two centuries, he has laid the 
hoary ripeness of his intellect before us to-day, as a truly massive 
and rich bicentennial offering. Should he go on as he has begun, 
I should covet to be one of his favored auditors two hundred years 
hence. 

But, sir, to be sober, if we are indebted to his diligence, he is not 
less indebted to the subjects which the last two centuries have fur- 
nished. It is not so much, after all, that he is two hundred years 
older, as that the last two hundred years have furnished facts of 
transcendent interest to enrich his pages, that we are chiefly to 
consider. 

The history of our New-England fathers ! What a theme ! 
Never will it be exhausted ; never can it cease to interest. As 
their portraits were passing in review before us this morning, all 
hearts instinctively rose in gratitude to Heaven that we are their 
children. To them we owe not only the debt of filial gratitude. 



208 APPENDIX. 

but the richest of blessings. Our ears have been entertained 
at l his table with some pleasantries touching their traditional 
foibles. I do not object to a little humor, but I am disposed to be 
spiuing of it on this occasion. When looking through a powerful 
magnifier, we see small spots in the sun ; but, when we consider 
our indebtedness to that glorious orb for light and wai'mth, for all 
that makes creation bright and lovely, and even for our existence 
itself, we are little inclined to speak of its spots. They are buried 
and lost in the flooding brightness of its beams. 

Our fathers ! Their works praise them. Look at these unequalled 
civil, religious, and educational institutions, which they have planted 
and reared ; look at these charming towns and villages, rising up 
under their hands from the dark bosom of the wilderness ; survey 
the scene of surpassing beauty and loveliness spread before us 
to-day ; and consider that all these are the gifts of the wisdom and 
piety, ay, and of the tears and blood of our fathers ; and then say 
if it becomes their children to speak lightly of them, even for the 
commendable purpose of treating ourselves with a dish of wholesome 
humor. It is of little avail that we gravely admonish our children 
to honor their ancestors, after they have seen us making ourselves 
merry at their foibles. Our fathers are superior alike to our apo- 
logies and our praises. They are like the angel standing in the 
sun ; and they challenge the homage, and defy the ridicule, of all 
men to the end of time. 

Our thoughts have here been directed mainly to our fathers in 
the pastoral office. This is well, as evincing in our regards the 
predominance of the religious element. But there are others to 
whom we are scarcely less indebted. The rulers, counsellors, 
judges, legislators, mechanics, and the great generic class, including 
nearly all others, — the " planters," — call for our boundless grati- 
tude and everlasting remembrance. The wisdom and firmness, the 
patriotism and self-sacrifice, the industry and perseverance, which 
framed our government, established our schools, fought the bat- 
tles with our enemies, red and white, and converted the howling 
wilderness into fruitful fields and gardens, shall never be recalled 
but with grateful admiration. We would do justice to all, remem- 



APPENDIX. 209 

bering that they are members of one body, mutually dependent. 
Of the several classes, there is one, including the " spinners and 
weavers," to whom my friend from Clinton has referred, which is 
rapidly rising in consideration. In New England, especially, 
manufacturers of all kinds seem destined to share, if not to hold, 
the most important rank. But the men to whom I would at this 
moment more particularly refer are the farmers, — the " planters," 
as they were formerly called. 

These are the true original nobility of New England. They 
first laid the keen edge of the axe to the roots of its trees, and 
plunged the glittering spade into its virgin soil. Their hardy sinews 
smote down the forests, and their industry has made the wilderness 
bud and blossom as the rose. By their patient toil and sweat, we 
all eat our bread, and enjoy our savory viands and delicious fruits. 
As I look out in every direction through the uplifted curtains of 
this spacious tabernacle, I behold on all sides the most brilliant 
exhibitions of their taste and industry. To them we owe these 
green, sloping pastures, covered over with flocks ; these rich mead- 
ows ; these waving corn-fields ; these beautiful lawns and gardens ; 
these orchards and nurseries ; and even these majestic elms, vying 
in antiquity with our venerable orator himself. 

More than all, to them we look for the sober thinking, the sound 
common sense, which, in these days of ultra notions and transcen- 
dental vagaries, must regulate our social and religious institutions. 
Farmers seldom err in judgment on these subjects, unless their 
credulity is imposed upon, and they are thus misled by designing 
demagogues and innovators. Give them the facts in their true 
light and bearing, and they usually make the right use of them. 
Hence, the honest politician, the true lawyer, the faithful pastor, 
finds his best friends among the farmers. This is the reason why 
the palmy days of the pastoral office, and of the other learned pro- 
fessions, were precisely those in which the farming interests of New 
England held the pre-eminence. 

We have always been accustomed to look to Worcester County 
as the heart of Massachusetts ; and to her farmers, especially, as 
models of republican wisdom and stability. If any have been 

27 



210 APPENDIX. 

misled by dazzling speculations and distorted facts, we especially 
congratulate the farmers of this noble town, that they have, as a 
body, continued sound in the faith of their fathers. We are also 
confident in the belief, that the time of " sophisters and innova- 
tors," who would subvert our precious institutions, is approaching 
its end; and that all the farmers of this great and glorious old 
county will soon again see with the same eyes as the immortal 
men who framed our constitution, fought our battles, and estab- 
lished our liberties. 

Were I to offer a sentiment in this plaee, it would be to this 
effect : — 

" The Farmers of Worcester County. Of noble birth and 
noble calling, may they ever do honor to both ! " 



The following remarks, by Professor Russell, were made in 
answer to a toast referring to the New-England Normal Institute : 

On behalf of my coadjutors in the enterprise on which we have 
entered, and which has just been so warmly welcomed, I should be 
happy, were it in my power, adequately to express our wai*m 
acknowledgments of the kind and liberal reception which our pro- 
posals originally met from the people of Lancaster. Unsolicited 
we came among you, asking for house-room for a school of a pecu- 
liar order, such as has sprung into existence in our own day, and 
which, in other countries, as well as in this, is as yet but a species 
of experiment, — a school for the training of teachers. " What ! " it 
was asked by my friends in New Hampshire, where I had had the 
pleasure of introducing and conducting, for several years, such a 
school, the only one in that State, — " What ! propose to establish 
another Normal School in Massachusetts, where the State already 
supports some three or four ? " Yes ; because the very fact of the 
liberal procedure of the State towards its own public schools suggests 
the probable prosperity of a private normal seminary for the teachers 
of private schools, whose wants differ in their nature somewhat 
from those of the instructors of our common schools, and for whose 



APPENDIX. 211 

higher and more expensive preparatory professional training the 
State can hardly be expected to become responsible ; and what 
harm would be done, if, in our elementary courses of instruction, 
we should happen to afford opportunity for enterprising young 
persons to defray the expense of their own professional training, 
and so relieve the State of that charge ; although, in our more 
advanced departments, we should be, at the same time, engaged 
in our more immediate design of preparing teachers for the highest 
class of our various seminaries of learning ? 

The experiment was proposed to a community capable of appre- 
ciating and sustaining it. The ample success with which it is 
already crowned, has stamped its legible sanction on the under- 
taking ; and we, whose daily duty is to uphold it by our personal 
labors, have nothing left to wish for, but the continuance of the 
generous countenance hitherto extended to us, and the lapse of 
all-trying time to ratify, with his indelible imprimatur, the work 
whose inception you have now so warmly hailed. 

"We are young as an institution ; and modesty peculiarly becomes 
us. "We could not afford to boast if we would. But may I not 
be permitted, as a resident of Lancaster, to congratulate my fellow- 
citizens on the introduction among them of an establishment for 
education, which, by a favoring Providence, has secured the instruc- 
tion of some of the most eminent teachers of our day in science, in 
literature, and in art ? 

Let me conclude with a sentiment, which, though expressing 
but the wishes of an individual, has, I am sure, the sympathy of 
many hearts : — 

"The Elms of Lancaster, which now shelter and adorn 
so many happy homes. May their shades henceforward be also 
the recognized resorts of the dispensers and the recipients of ' the 
treasures of science, and the delights of learning ' ! " 



The Rev. Charles Brooks, of Boston, offered the following 
remarks : — 



212 



APPENDIX. 



Mr. President, — There is no time now to say much, and I have 
not much to say if there was time. I hope that this occasion will 
result in giving an extended history of Lancaster to the world. 
I am sorry to know that the records, made by our ancestors in 
many of our New-England villages, have been little valued, and 
therefore, in many cases, destroyed. Mr. President, I should as 
soon think of destroying the portraits of my deceased parents. 
These old records of the early times show us facts, which no one 
else can show us, and testify with the accuracy of a geological 
fragment, of a bird-track, or a fossil. "When they are destroyed, 
where are the authentic data for a proper New-England history ? 
That history is yet to be written ; and the records of each town 
are necessary to its completion. Will you allow me to illustrate 
by a single fact? I was recently examining the records of an 
ancient town in Middlesex County, and I found its inhabitants as- 
sembled, by warrant, two hundred years ago, for the sole purpose 
of deliberating about the establishment of a school. Grave debate 
ensued; and, at last, with entire unanimity, they vote that "a 
school shall be established for three months." But did this vote 
cover their whole purpose ? Oh, no ! In an emphatic parenthesis 
they add, — "and this school shall be free." Prophetic 
parenthesis ! We of 1853 can see that an Anglo-Saxon race, on 
these shores, who began their political existence with free schools, 
must soon come to a declaration of their political independence. 
These old records show us the fountains from whose sweet waters 
we are daily drinking health and hope. They show us, that we 
are oftentimes only thinking our fathers' thoughts after them. Let 
me ask you all to look after the early records of your several 
towns, and see that they are not only pi'eserved and new-bound, 
but carefully copied, and a copy deposited in the archives of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society. 

Mr. President, there are many here who feel a deep and growing 
interest in this subject ; but no one feels a juster concern than the 
gentleman whose health I shall have the honor to propose to you. 
He loves everything that belonged to our Pilgrim Fathers, and his 
pen has done noble justice to their names. A specimen of his good 



APPENDIX. 2lo 

judgment and historical accuracy you have witnessed in the model 
address to which you have listened this morning. Let me, then, 
give you — 

" The Orator of the Day. We admire the historical accu- 
racy and good scholarship of his head; hut we, more than all, 
value that moral electricity of his heart, which he must have re- 
ceived from the Leyden jar." * 



21. The Castalian Fotjntatn in Lancaster. Those who have drunk of its 
waters have not lost by absence the influence of its early inspirations. 

Remarks of B. A. Gould, Esq. of Boston. 

Mr. President, — Though honored by the intimation that a word 
is expected from me in acknowledgment of the compliment intended 
for a lady nearly related, I cannot but regret that common usage 
confines the speaking to gentlemen. Yes, sir, for the first time in 
my life, I feel like advocating the Bloomer spirit, and requesting 
the lady to acknowledge the courtesy, and to do for herself what 
she can do much better than her brother can do for her. 

On returning to the place of our birth and our childhood, after 
an absence of forty years, how changed was the scene ! The trees 
had been felled which sustained the far-spreading vines, purple with 
cart-loads of grapes. The alders had been cut from beside the 
brook, where formerly sported the speckled trout ; and the stream 
itself had been degraded to a straight and narrow ditch. The sur- 
rounding wood had disappeared. The fiery engine, with its iron 
hoof, had trodden down the grass and the grain; and even the hills 
and the hollows seemed to approach a common level. The old 
buildings were gone ; and, where one house stood, a village had 
grown up. The face of nature seemed changed. But one thing 
remained the same ; and that is " our father's well." It was a shaft 
sunk deeply into the earth, more than half a century ago, terminat- 
ing in a living spring of ice-cold water, which heeds not the drouth, 

* This was given instead of the regular toast of " The Orator of the Day." 



214 APPENDIX. 

nor the freshets above. This was stoned up with slate-stones, laid 
flatwise, having their edges smoothly cut in a circular form, present- 
ing from above a beautiful hollow cylinder. The deep, cold spring 
still flows silently at the bottom, — 

" Labitur et labetur in oinne volubilis sevura." 

" Though all be changed around it, 

And though so changed are we, 
Just where our father found it, 

That pure well-spring will be. 
Just as he smoothly stoned it, 

A close, round, shadowy cell; 
Whoever since has owned it, 

It is 'our father's well.' 
And, since that moment, never 

lias that cool deep been dry: 
Its fount is living ever, 

While man and seasons die." * 

I take it, Mr. President, that "our father's well " is the " Castalian 
Fountain " alluded to in the toast ; for, if any water can give inspi- 
ration, I think it may fairly be expected from that. 

But, Mr. President, though I can claim no inspiration from the 
Castalian fountain, I do most gladly avail myself of this opportunity 
to state how deeply I sympathize in the emotions called forth this 
day. Who, after a long absence, could return to his native town 
unmoved by the kind, the touching " Welcome Home " that greeted 
his first entrance into the church ? How beautifully and how 
tastefully was that church adoraed! and how eloquent and how 
instructive was the recital there of the struggles, toils, and suffer- 
ings of the first settlers of the town, and of the blessings which have 
followed ! I cannot adequately express my admiration of the plan- 
ning and carrying out of this delightful festival. And I beg leave 
to thank the Committee for their considerate attention, and for the 
privilege of being present, and of uniting with you in this interesting 
celebration. For I feel, Mr. President, that it is good for us to be 
here. It is good for us to pause a moment, and to look around us ; 
to look backward as well as forward ; to consider the blessings we 

* Miss H. F. Gould's Poems, vol. iii.: 1841. 



APPENDIX. 215 

enjoy, and the evils and the sufferings from which we are exempted. 
For who can contemplate the life of toil, of privation, and of danger 
to which the first settlers of this town were exposed, without emo- 
tions of gratitude and words of thanksgiving that we have been 
spared like sufferings ? 

The occasion on which we meet is an epoch in our life. It 
affords an eminence from which we can view the current of events 
which has borne us on, with accelerating motion, from infancy to 
the present time. And who of us all cannot profit by the retro- 
spect ? For who cannot recall many mistakes, many errors in his 
life, as well as many unimproved opportunities of doing good? 
And thus the occasion may be turned to good account. But, 
aside from the emotions which a visit to the scenes of one's child- 
hood is calculated to inspire, after an absence of nearly half a 
century, there are other considerations which render this centennial 
celebration useful as well as pleasant. . It is calculated to keep 
alive the spirit of patriotism ; and it behoves us, as Americans, to 
look well to this. What is patriotism but a love of one's country ? 
And where does the love of one's country burn brighter than upon 
the domestic altar ? Is it not to the home of his childhood that the 
long-absent wanderer feels his fondest hopes, his most ardent yearn- 
ings, tend ? « 

" Breathes there the man with soul so dead. 
Who never to himself hath said, 
This is my own, my native land! " 

Sir, it was this love of country that encouraged our fathers to 
endure privation, exposure, and death, rather than abandon the 
rights of freemen. 

It is this holy flame that from age to age has inspired the 
eloquence of the orator and the strains of the poet. Yes, the last 
lingerings of consciousness in the dying exile hang around his na- 
tive city. 

"Dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos." 

" Dying, he remembers his dear native Argos." 

But, sir, we are living in an age of innovation ; an age of revolution 



'-JIG APPENDIX. 

in principles hitherto considered fixed and settled ; an age when 
unhallowed hands are laid upon things most sacred. 

The rapidity and ease with which all parts of the globe are 
visited, the interchange of thought for thousands of miles with the 
celerity of lightning, tend to weaken local attachments. Even now 
the wires are being placed, which are to unite China and the 
remotest Indies with London in one electric circle. And may we 
not expect to witness the fulfilment of the promises of fiction, — ■ 

" I '11 put a girdle round about the earth 
In forty minutes " 1 

In times like these, how does it become every reflecting mind to 
resist this spirit of innovation, and to hold fast that which is good ! 
Why, sir, this wild spirit of the times has already changed some of 
our patriotic citizens to cosmopolites. They have already merged 
their love of country in a theoretic love of mankind. They openly 
advise the abandonment of the wise and prudent counsel of our 
fathers, — to observe equal justice with foreign powers, and keep 
free from all entangling alliances, — by which we have so greatly 
prospered. Yes, sir, they recommend the intervention of the United 
States in the affairs of European powers ! They have become citi- 
zens of the world, and would regulate the world's affairs. 

It is hoped the number of such is small. For, in attempting too 
much, they jeopardize all that has been gained. Should we not, 
therefore, strengthen the ties of home, cherish the associations of 
youth, and keep alive the spirit of patriotism ? 

These centennial celebrations, I think, have this tendency ; and 
I hope every town and city, not only of this Commonwealth, but 
throughout the Union, even to the shores of the Pacific, may follow 
the example. Yes, good old Mother Lancaster, eldest daughter of 
the county ! long may your children gather round you and greet 
you on your birthdays, as circling centuries roll ! Long may you 
remain, as now, rich in the townships you have endowed, which 
encompass you around ; rich in your soil, your placid lakes, and 
silver streams ; rich in your industrial pursuits and exhaustless 
resources ; but, like Cornelia, richer far in your jewels, — your 



APPENDIX. 217 



bright progeny, dispersed throughout the land, and carrying with 
them industry, enterprise, literature, science, and the useful arts. 



22. The Memory of General Henry Whiting, — the brave and humane sol- 
dier, the accomplished scholar, and, in every relation of life, the gentleman and the 
Christian. 

The Committee feel especial gratification in being able to asso- 
ciate with this tribute to the memory of one of Lancaster's worthiest 
sons, the following note and the accompanying poem, sent to them 
by his sister, Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, of Quincy, Florida : — 

J. M. "Washburn, Sec. 

Dear Sir, — Accompanying this, you will receive the poem, -written to com- 
memorate the Anniversary you are about to celebrate. 

Will you say to the Committee, of which you are the voice, that I consider 
it an exalted privilege to be permitted to mingle my spirit with theirs on so 
interesting an occasion ? I earnestly hope, that what I have written may prove 
an acceptable offering. 

Perhaps I have allowed private feeling to have too great a sway in the 
tribute I send to the memory of my beloved brothers. If so, I pray to be 
forgiven. 

I trust it may not be too late for the purpose designed. 

Most sincerely and respectfully yours, 

Caroline Lee Hentz. 
Qutncy, May 27, 1853. 

Two hundred times the summer flower 

Has bloomed and faded since the hour 

Our hardy ancestors subdued 

The wild, uncultured solitude, 

And stole from Nature's savage hand 

This emerald of our granite land. 

Yes ! just two hundred years ago, 

Lancastria bent her virgin brow, 

Wliile rites of consecration shed 

The dews of baptism on her head. 

What though Time's chariot-wheels have rolled 

Unpausing o'er her bosom's mould ? 

Still, in eternal youth and bloom, 

She smiles as when from forest gloom, 

Like the shy Indian maid, she came, 

The glittering gems of art to claim. 

28 



218 APPENDIX. 



Six generations, like the sheaves, 
Golden and ripe, that autumn leaves, 
Cut down by reaping death, have fed 
The soil that, living, gave them bread. 
Their dust is mingling with the clay 
That makes the grave-clod of to-day ; 
With new-born life it throbs and glows 
In the sweet foldings of the rose, 
And waves in majesty and power 
In every glorious elm-wood bower. 
Hark ! — 'mid the long grass gently stirred, 
The whispers of the past are heard. 
On winds, that clouds of fragrance waft, 
Are borne its accents low and soft, 
And where the rustling branches wave 
Comes the deep music of the grave. 

Methinks, the tide of time rolls back 
With murmuring How, baring the track 
Of centuries. At first 't is traced 
By Indian steps o'er forest waste. 
Lord of the wilderness, his throne 
The rock-ribbed hill, the moss-wreathed stone, 
His crown the bleeding scalp of foe, 
His sceptre the unslackened bow, 
The red man stormed the wild beast's lair, 
And reared his wigwam palace there. 
But soon, like drifting leaves, the race 
Flies withering from the wliite man's face, 
Before whose pallid gleam, each shade 
Of darker life is doomed to fade. 

Of many a spot, in tliis sweet vale, 
Tradition tells a bloody tale. 
The captive wife, the murdered sire, 
The slaughtered babe, the burning pyre, 
The smoking roof, the rifled home, 
The plundered, desecrated dome, 
In characters of blood and flame, 
The red man's savage wrath proclaim. 
But o'er this path, by ruin traced, 
Science, religion, genius, taste, 
With gilding steps have roamed, and east 
Fair blossoms o'er the blighted Past. 
Earth blooms afresh, with charms restored, 
It smiles, the garden of the Lord ; 



APPENDIX. 

And man, than angels only less, 

To a new Eden turns the howling wilderness. 

Hail, day of jubilee ! in gathering bands 
They come to greet thee. Some from distant lands 
Stretch the soul's wings, o'er mountain, river, plain, 
To bear to thee a gratulating strain. 
Oh ! they are present in the spirit's power, 
And share the deep joy of this festal hour ; 
Conquerors of space, their native air they breathe, 
Though round them, still, fair southern garlands wreathe. 
Hail, Lancaster ! dear, lovely, native vale ! 
"With glowing hearts thy children bid thee hail. 
From north and south, from east and west, they come, 
Faithful to thee, their first and earliest home. 
Steeped in thy purity, their souls disdain 
Each grovelling purpose, each allurement vain. 
Vice could not tempt where thy pure image beams, 
The guardian angel of life's darker dreams. 

Beautiful valley ! whether robed in mist, 
By diamond stars or silver moonbeams kissed, 
Or wearing noonday glory on thy brow, 
While flowers and leaflets, trembling vassals, bow 
Low at thy footstool, — fairest of the fair, 
Thy brow must still the palni of beauty wear. 
The gentle river, winding through thy heart, 
In azm-e veins, that vernal life impart ; 
The grand old trees, that spread their hundred arms 
In shade and shelter, o'er thy bashful charms ; 
Thy velvet greenness, the divine repose 
That golden sunset o'er thy bosom throws, — 
"Where shall we find, though searching lands and seas, 
The elements of beauty such as these ? 
Ah ! while the young, the noble, and the gay 
Are thronging here, to grace this festal day, 
Are there no missing forms ? Why come they not, 
In sacred fellowship, around this spot ? 
Where is the Pastor, who was wont to bear 
The heavenward spirit on the wings of pray< r ; 
Whose voice of solemn music, deep, sublime, 
Comes echoing down the sounding aisles of Time ; 
Whose eye serene and holy, like the star 
Of hazy skies, seems shining 1'rom afar ■ 
Why comes he not, to bless his waiting flock ? 
— Silence and death the asking spirit mock. — 



219 



220 APPENDIX. 



Turn to yon tomb, and on its granite face, 

Through weeping boughs, the mournful answer trace. 

"Where are the Soldier- Brothers, born and bred 

Within this vale, — why waits their stately tread ? 

They who, where'er their warrior-steps might roam, 

Still turned in spirit to their native home, 

And kept each household feeling green and fair, 

As if they were some fostering angel's care, — 

Oh ! where are they, the noble and the brave, 

When, for their greeting, starry banners wave ? 

Alas ! the grave replies, — in whose dark cell 

Lancastria's gallant sons in silence dwell. 

"Where are the lords and tillers of the soil, 

Who, with their souls of strength and hands of toil, 

Tinned into gold the earth, and bid it rain, 

In showers of plenty, o'er the smiling plain ? 

Where is the good, the holy, saintly band 

Of God's beloved, — the worthies of the land, 

"Who for two hundred years have walked in white 

Through these green paths, and left their tracks of light ? 

Are they not present ? Does no thrilling spell, 

Breathed on the soul, of power unearthly tell ? ' 

Oh ! by the ashes in thy bosom laid, 
We bless thee, Lancaster. Thy shrine is made 
A Mecca, where the pilgrim-spirit turns, 
To bring its offerings to thy sacred urns. 
And by the living, who this day surround 
Thine ancient altar, by one interest bound, 
"We bless thee, Lancaster. When Time has shed 
Two centuries more on thy unfaded head, 
Mayst thou still shine in loveliness and power, 
And crown with blooming youth that tar-seen hour ! 
And may thy children then with pride retrace 
The worth and glory of the present race ; 
And when then strains of jubilee arise, 
Like thine, to meet the blue and bending skies, 
May votive Memory to that shrine repair, 
And hang with reverent hand her garland there ! 



APPENDIX. 221 



LETTERS 



[Among the many letters which have been received, the Committee regret 
that they are able to publish only the following.] 

Aug. 15, 1853. 
The Committee of the American Antiquarian Society, who were 
present at the celebration of the Lancaster Centennial, have heard 
with great pleasure that a permanent record of the proceedings of 
that day is to be prepared by the citizens of Lancaster. We can 
only wish, as your orator on that occasion did, that a hundred years 
since a like record had been left by those whose attention was then 
called by their own pastor to the first century of the history of their 
town. 

Nothing occurs to us which we can ask you to add, in this record, 
to the learned address of Mr. Willard, or the reports of the addresses 
made at the dinner. We are convinced that every new investiga- 
tion into the history of the first planters of Massachusetts will show 
that their influence was deeply felt in the world's history, on each 
side of the ocean, even in their own time. The essay which Mr. 
Haven has prefixed to the Colonial Records, lately published in our 
Transactions, has brought into clear light the efforts which the mem- 
bers of the Massachusetts Company made in the great English 
Rebellion. In this connection, we recollect 1G53 as a year of 
interest to our fathers here, because it was of stirring interest to 
Englishmen still " at home." The General Court, which incorpo- 
rated Lancaster, outlived the Rump Parliament; which, at that 
very time, Cromwell was driving from its seats, " to give place to 
honest men." And the first news from the old country which your 



222 APPENDIX. 

first Puritan settlers heard in their log-cabins, after their incorpora- 
tion, was probably the eventful tidings of the great naval victories 
which made England, under Puritan governors, the first maritime 
power in the world. 

Such reminiscences remind us of a connection between the two 
Puritan Commonwealths of that day, England and Massachusetts ; 
which, when the history of Massachusetts is written, — as your ora- 
tor hoped it might be, — will appear on every line. The men who 
were most active here were most active there. Here they had no 
enemies but the forest and the savage. There they had the preju- 
dices of centuries to meet and to overthrow. The Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts lives therefore. The Commonwealth of England 
fell. But we here ought not to forget that the men who failed there 
in statesmanship were the men who succeeded here. 

For the Committee, 

Edw. E. Hale. 

To the Gentlemen of the Publishing Committee, Ac. &c. 



Cambridge, June 1, 1853. 
Gentlemen, — I duly received your kind invitation to be present 
at the two-hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Lancaster, 
for which I beg you will accept my thanks. I have many agree- 
able associations with Lancaster, and should be happy to revive 
them on so interesting an occasion; but my engagements at the time 
will not permit. 

I am, Gentlemen, with much respect and regard. 

Your obedient servant, 

Jared Sparks. 



Boston, June 1, 1853. 



Gentlemen, — I am greatly obliged by the invitation, which you 
have done me the honor to send me, to be present at the celebra- 
tion of the two-hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the 
town of Lancaster; and I regret that my engagements are such, 



APPENDIX. 223 

at the time appointed, as to prevent my having the pleasure of 
being one of your company on the occasion. 

I believe I have always been fully sensible to what is wprthy of 
admiration in your good town, as regards the charms of its scenery 
and the character of its people. It is connected by the most 
honorable associations, as well as romantic incidents, with the 
early history of our country. It was the chosen residence of our 
Pilgrim Fathers, and very soon took a prominent position among 
the settlements of New England. To me it has a personal interest, 
as the spot to which my own ancestors removed soon after coming 
to the country. I heartily sympathize with you in the objects 
of your meeting. In thus doing honor to the memory of your 
fathers, you take the best means of recommending their example 
to the imitation of their descendants. And we can have no better 
wish than that the piety, integrity, and courage, which they 
showed, in establishing our glorious institutions, may be showed by 
our own and by coming generations in maintaining them, — main- 
taining them no less against domestic assault than foreign violence ; 
the latter, strong as we are, the less dangerous of the two. 

With sentiments of great respect, 
I remain, Gentlemen, 

Your obliged and obedient servant, 

Wm. H. Prescott. 



Nashville, N. H., June 14, 1853. 

Gentlemen, — Allow me to return you my thanks for your invi- 
tation to be present at the celebration of the two-hundredth anni- 
versary of the incorporation of the town of Lancaster. 

I had promised myself the pleasure of uniting with you on that 
occasion, but am unexpectedly prevented by professional engage- 
ments. 

I recognize, in the respected and accomplished gentleman who is 
to address you, one of the instructors of my youth ; and there are 
many associations, interesting at least to myself, which connect my 
regards with your ancient town. 



224 APPENDIX. 

James Atherton, an ancestor of mine, came to Lancaster two 
centuries ago. Dr. Israel Atherton, my father's uncle, I can 
remember, who was long a practising physician there. In my boy- 
hood, I attended the academy, then kept on the old Common, 
under the charge of Holman and Proctor, and of that distinguished 
scholar, President Sparks, — boarding part of the time on the 
Common, but most of the time domesticated in the family of the 
Rev. Dr. Thayer, his wife being my mother's sister. The walks to 
school from Dr. Thayer's, across the fields and across the Dr. 
Atherton bridge ; the fishing in the Nashua River, which, uniting 
its branches at the Centre Bridge, flows on until it reaches the 
Merrimac, near my present residence; the boating on its placid 
waters ; the rambles over your verdant intervales and gently- 
sloping hills ; the pastime under the shade of your noble elms ; the 
September gale which uprooted one of the large trees before Mr. 
Pollard's window, where I was then standing, and which gave us 
boys a holiday; the services on Sundays at the old meeting-house; 
the laying of the corner-stone of the present brick meeting-house ; 
the trumpet-tones of Dr. Thayer ; the rich and unctuous voice of 
r ^eJ!L chorister N e well,- — all these recollections of my boyhood throng 
now freshly upon me ! Happy days of boyhood ! which carry with 
them no sorrow, except that they pass so quickly, and never 
return ! 

With all these incitements, you, gentlemen, will scarce need the 
assurance of the disappointment which I feel in being obliged to 
decline your invitation. 

"Wishing you all the enjoyment which such an occasion is so 
eminently calculated to call forth, 

I am, very respectfully, 

Your friend and servant, 

C. G. Atherton. 



Chaklestown, Feb. 15, 1853. 
Gentlemen, — Your obliging favor, inviting me to attend a meet- 
ing at Lancaster, the 15th of June next, to commemorate the two- 



APPENDIX. 



22^ 



hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of that town, has been 
received ; for which attention please accept my thanks. 

The proposed celebration excites my peculiar interest; and I 
shall be present if not prevented by events now unseen, and then 
out of my power to control. I shall come up to this filial gathering 
with the sentiments and affections of one returning, after a long 
absence, to the paternal hearth, to visit a venerated mother on her 
natal day. 

Though one-third of a century has elapsed since I went forth 
from that home of my infancy and youth, for a new residence and 
untried scenes ; and though, in the interim, I have been constantly 
surrounded by pressing occupations, — I can truly say, that no one 
day has intervened without a vivid reminiscence of my native town, 
and of many dear ones there, both the living and the dead. 
I am, Gentlemen, very respectfully, 

Your friend and obedient servant, 

Paul Willard. 



Boston, June 14, 1853. 

Gentlemen, — I have seldom received an invitation with more 
pleasure than I have yours, to attend the celebration of the two- 
hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the beautiful town of 
Lancaster. It seems to me a most appropriate addition to the very 
few holidays in which we working Northerners indulge ourselves ; 
and no celebration can be more proper for free men, who value their 
institutions, and rejoice in the blessings which come from them. 

A New-England town, such as Lancaster is, is the only perfect 
democracy in the world. A town-meeting is the best place in the 
world for the discussion of the great principles of liberty. There the 
whole body of citizens meet ; and every one has a right to bring 
forward and advocate whatever he thinks for his own good, or for 
the good of his fellow-citizens ; and every other individual has an 
equal right to oppose, modify, or disprove whatever has been 
advanced. The questions which come up are the most important 

29 



226 



APPENDTX. 



that can come up in the intercourse of men ; questions of merely 
private rights, such as arise on the subject of fences, cattle, and the 
like ; questions concerning social rights, such as those suggested by 
roads and bridges ; and questions involving the highest principles 
of human progress, — questions as to the location, management, 
and instruction of schools ; and questions relating to churches, and 
the worship of God. 

A New-England town thus becomes itself a great school, the 
noblest conceivable, in which a young man may learn to under- 
stand, to value, and to defend all his rights and privileges, as an 
individual, as a citizen, as an intelligent being, and as a creature of 
God, born for immortality. 

I believe it was this universal training in the knowledge of rights, 
this great town-influence, which made our ancestors capable of 
carrying through the Revolutionary War, and which now keeps 
them capable of understanding and maintaining their liberties. 

For these reasons, and many others, which must all, like these, 
have occurred more vividly to yourselves, I regard this as one of 
the most suitable and reasonable celebrations possible. I hope it 
may be as pleasant as it promises to be. I am very sorry to be 
obliged to add my sincere regret and disappointment at not being 
able to attend it. 

Very respectfully and truly yours, 

Geo. B. Emerson. 



Andover, May 7, 1853. 

Gentlemen, — The extreme sickness of my brother, Professor 
Farrar, of Cambridge, and the probability of a fatal issue, must 
forbid my indulging the hope of participating in the festivities of 
the anniversary commemoration to which you kindly invite me. It 
would give me great pleasure to meet many who were my pupils 
sixty years ago, and of whom I have always entertained an interest- 
ing recollection ; and to revive the remembrance of many families, 
both in the George Hill and the Neck Districts, of whom I have 



APPENDIX. 227 

many happy reminiscences. I have always looked back upon those 
two winters that I spent in Lancaster, in the years 1792 and 1793, 
if I recollect right, as among the most pleasurable periods of my 
life ; and it would now give me great pleasure to meet many who 
were my pupils in those schools. My advanced age (being now 
in my eightieth year), together with the peculiar situation of my 
brother, obliges me to deny myself the pleasure of accepting your 
very gratifying invitation. 

"With great respect, Gentlemen, 

Your friend and obedient servant, 

Saml. Farrar. 



Springfield, July 4, 1853 . 

Gentlemen, — Your letter of July 4th was received in due time, 
and for several days I purposed to comply with your request, to 
furnish a copy of the remarks I intended to make at the late centen- 
nial celebration ; but unavoidable engagements have prevented me 
so long that I presume it is now too late. My sentiment would 
have been — 

"The Schoolmaster;" 

and I should have expressed, in an entirely spontaneous manner, 
my high and profound sense of the obligation I shall feel, while life 
lasts, of the liberality with which the citizens of my native town 
have always provided men of high character and qualifications to 
discharge the duties of instructors of youth. I should also have 
expressed the fresh and lively recollection I retain of the venerable 
gentlemen to whom I am indebted for imparting to me and my 
associates, half a century ago, the necessary instruction to fit us for 
the ordinary duties of life. Several of those gentlemen are now 
living, and enjoying a "green old age;" two of whom — Samuel 
Farrar, Esq., of Andover, who was my first male teacher ; and 
Ethan A. Greenwood, Esq., of Hubbardston, who was my last school 



228 APPENDIX. 

instructor — I Lave hail the pleasure of seeing and conversing with 
recently. I have thought it proper to say thus much hy way of 
apology for not answering your polite eommuuication sooner. 

With very great respect, I remain, 

Your obliged servant, 

Charles Steakjms. 



West Point, Pub. 7, 1853. 

Dear Sir, — Great as is the desire I feel to visit the home of 
my forefathers, and to be present at the interesting anniversary, 
to the celebration of which you have kindly invited me, I fear that 
I shall be unable to gratify my wishes on that occasion, as I shall 
be unavoidably engaged at that time in the labors of our semi- 
annual examination. 

While expressing my sincere regret that I cannot be present at 
this gathering, permit me to express briefly, but truly, my hearty 
sympathy with those who will then be drawn together by their 
affection for the good old town of Lancaster. 

Yours very respectfully, 

J. W. Bailey. 



Boston, June 12, 1853. 

Gentlemen, — I regret my inability to comply with your kind 
invitation to be present on the loth instant, in commemoration of 
the two-hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Lancaster. 
It would have given me much pleasure to have been present; for, 
though I am not a descendant of a Lancaster family, yet, being 
>lightly tinctured with antiquarianism, 1 can must readily and heart- 
ily join in paying my respects to the memory of all of olden time, 
of whatever name or place. Those of the present day have a 
duty to perform to the pioneers who first explored New-England's 



APPENDIX. 229 

wilds, and who there planted the seed whose germination has pro- 
duced the smiling fields that we now inhahit. But, aside from this 
general reverence I have for the past, I feel a more particular 
interest in your celebration, because it was the early home of one 
whose name I bear, and whose family was connected with many of 
Lancaster's most respectable families. In collecting materials for 
a genealogical and historical work which has just been published, 
I gathered up many things that were interesting about some of 
the Wilders, Harringtons, and others. They were men of note in 
olden time : they left their mark behind them, and descendants to 
do them honor. 

But that other man, whose name I should have been pleased to 
represent, will have none to speak for him. The descendants 
of three granddaughters, now scattered, are all that remain of 
his family. Most gratifying would it be to me if I could be present 
at your meeting, and exhibit the evidence I have procured, that 
Samuel Locke, President of Harvard College, was a man of 
great learning, and of talents of the very highest order. He was 
" fitted " for college by Parson Harrington, and with him after- 
wards studied divinity. He was elected to the Presidency of the 
first college in the country at an earlier age than any who went 
before him, or who succeeded him ; " a station for which," says 
the elder Adams, "no man was better qualified; and "over which," 
says a contemporary, " he presided four years, with much repu- 
tation to himself, and advantage to the public." 

But I am growing prolix, and will close by wishing all that may 
assemble, a happy meeting. 

I am respectfully yours, 

John G. Locke. 

L'.S. I will offer as a sentiment the following: — " Our Fore- 
fathers. He who regards not the memory and character of bis 
ancestors deserves to be forgotten by posterity." 



230 APPENDIX. 

The Committee have also received responses to their circular 
and note of invitation from the following persons, some of whom 
were present at the celehration : — 

I Us Excellency John H. Clifford ; His Honor Elisha Huntington ; the 
Hon. Samuel Hoar, Concord ; the Hon. Ebenezer Torrey, Fitchburg ; 
the Hon. Ira M. Barton, "Worcester ; Richard J. Cleveland, Esq., and 
Horace W. S. Cleveland, of Burlington, N. J. ; William H. Brooks, 
Boston; Sidney Willard, Camhridge; Henry Fletcher, Louisville, Ky. ; 
Alexander H. Wilder, Worcester; Alexander Fisher, Akron, O. ; T. 
II. Carter, Boston ; Dr. J. H. Lane, Boston ; S. V. S. Wilder, Elizabeth- 
town, N. J. ; J. White, Lowell ; Nathaniel Wilder, Eockford, HI. ; Nath. 
Peck, Lynn; Luke Wilder, Leominster; James Tower, Lowell; Merrick 
Wilder, Fort Edward, N.Y. ; Alden Spooner, Athol ; Augustus Wilder, 
Lawrence ; Mrs. Luke Eugg and Children, Ottawa, LT. ; Asa D. Whitte- 
more, Worcester ; Nancy W. Garfield, Troy, N.Y. 



THE END. 






£ 90? 



2 



